The Last Will and Testament of Minato Namikaze
by redrout
Summary: What happens when Naruto reads his father's will? will it affect the village or just him? find out. AU.
1. Chapter 1

Okay so this story will probably be pretty long, gonna be about how Naruto inherits his father's legacy. Will the villagers come to love him? Will they hate him all the more? Does Naruto find love? We'll find out together because I don't know the answers to ANY of those questions.

I don't own Naruto, but if I did I'd probably sell him to a better anime artist than me.

This one might have a lemon, but only in later chapters. It's got some language.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a review if you read. I really would like to know where to go with this story, because I don't know where exactly I wanna take it right now.

A thick, patchy fog settled over Konoha. The window blinds were shut, the shops were closed, and the streets were empty as the hidden leaf waited for the break of a new day. It was too early for anyone to be awake, which is why the golden-haired ninja thought it strange that he was being woken up by two toad summons. He vaguely recognized the voice as Gamakichi.

"Naruto, wake up," Gamakichi said as he nudged the sleeping shinobi, who in turn muttered something about it being too early for summoning toads. This continued on for several minutes, Naruto ignoring them and them trying to get him awake. Finally fed up with this, Gamakichi threw Naruto and the covers across the room. Needless to say, Naruto was slightly aggravated.

"What was that for?" He half-yelled, rubbing his bruised head. "I was gonna wake up."

"Naruto, this is important." The toad said, and that was when Naruto noticed the somber look in his friend's eyes.

"Okay," Naruto said, trying to drive the sleep from his eyes, which ended with some success. "What is this all about, Gama?"

Gamakichi motioned to the second toad summons. "This is Gagishi. He is a special type of summon. He is designated to hold a last will and testament, more specifically, your father's last will and testament."

Naruto's breath caught in his throat, and any thoughts of going back to sleep quickly vanished when he heard his father's name. He had known that his father was Minato Namikaze, legendary yellow flash of the hidden leaf and the fourth hokage. He was a great man, although Naruto had never known him as a father. He was shocked because he had never thought of his father's will before, but now it made sense. It seemed natural that the Hokage would prepare for this eventuality, but not everything was clear.

"Why now?" He asked.

"You mean you don't know what today is?" Gamakichi asked, surprised

As soon as Gama had said those words, he knew what it was. This was his least favorite day of the year. This was the day the villagers hated him most. This day had plagued him for all his life. As other children celebrated the day, he was doomed to beatings by the other villagers, both verbal and physical. Everyone was happy on this day but him.

It was his birthday.

Frustration built up inside of him. Of all the days to remind him of, why did it HAVE to be this one? The one day he wanted erased from existence.

"So what if it's my birthday?" He said caustically.

"It means," Gamakichi said, "that you're now twenty years old. By konoha law, you can now receive your inheritance. We were automatically summoned to give you his last will and testament, as you are the executor of his estate now."

Naruto's look of disdain was replaced with interest. Him, the executor of his father's will? Gagishi began to form hand seals. Naruto watched, fascinated because he didn't know some of the seals. Upon completion, the toad murmured something unintelligible, and a scroll popped into existence. Naruto looked at it as the orange toad reached for him, scroll in hand. Naruto tentatively reached out and took it from him. _This is the only part of my father that I will ever have. My father, who died what I live for. I swear I will execute his will to the letter. _He told himself as he took the scroll and broke the old wax seal bearing the Namikaze clan emblem. He slowly opened it with trembling hands and read:

_The last will and testament of Minato Namikaze, fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village; as witnessed by the sage Jiraya. _

_ Naruto, _

_If all goes well, today will be your twentieth birthday. You shall be the executor of my will, seeing to it that my last wishes do not go undone. Even though you are still unborn, I am proud of you. I only wish you can forgive me for not being a father to my son. But enough sad thoughts, on to my will. _

_ To my one and only son, Naruto Uzumaki, I bequeath all the love in my heart, all the love that ever was and ever will be. May Naruto remember that he is loved until he takes his last breath. May he never know the hate and scorn of the village. May he be loved and cherished always. As for my estate, my belongings, and all of my personal effects, Naruto shall have full custody of them immediately. My collection of scrolls detailing the clan's jutsu and secrets shall also be given him. My seat on the clan council shall also be given to Naruto. Lastly, I give him the legacy of the Namikaze name, may he wear it with pride always. _

_ Naruto, _

_The time has come for me to bid you farewell, as I do not think I will be able to speak to you again in this life. I am sure you will turn out to be a strong ninja. But most importantly, protect the ones you love. Defend them with all your might Naruto, that is the best advice I can give. _

_ With all my love,_

_ Minato Namikaze_

As Naruto looked down at the scroll before him, he was overcome. The feelings that swarmed over him were foreign; he did not recognize it as love.

"My contract is fulfilled." The smaller toad said, and vanished. Gamakichi followed suit a few seconds after. When they left, Naruto lay on his bed and quietly wept, overcome by what he had never felt before. It felt like forever before he managed to achieve some measure of emotional stability. Blinking away the last of his tears, he wrapped the scroll back up again, and set out to get his father's will finalized.

(cool transition music with lights)

-at the hokage mansion-

Tsunade had just finished signing off on all the safety papers needed for the festival, so that fireworks could be sold. She leaned back in her chair and sighed. Today would be a good day, she thought. A knock on the door roused her from her thoughts. Before she could say anything though, the door swung open and he saw Naruto standing there. She sighed again, knowing that this was probably another one of his childish antics. However, when she noticed that his face was sad and his mood dark, she began to worry.

"What is it Naruto?" Tsunade asked, wondering about the boy. She had so seldom seen him like this.

"I've come for what's mine." He said flatly as he laid the scroll on her desk. "Read it"

Tsunade examined the scroll. It was very decorative, with orange bands around it, and was inlaid in gold with the Namikaze clan emblem. She slowly opened it and read.

Naruto could not read her emotions as she read his father's will. However strong he might have looked, however resolute, however determined he might have seemed, in truth, he was no more than a frightened child on the inside, desperately clinging to whatever he had left of his father, one of the only people who loved him. Tsunade's expression changed, more to one of confusion.

"Why now, why today of all days?" she asked, slightly frustrated. She flinched when she saw the change in his eyes. It was subtle, but it carried more weight than anything the two had said up until then. She had crossed a line, and she realized it a split second too late. Before she could even put the words together for an apology, Naruto clenched his fist and spoke.

"Why now!" he yelled, voice filled with barely contained anger, "how about that it's my birthday? How about the fact that I've never had a single thing of my own for my entire life! I've had to scrape by ever since I was born!" Tsunade was shocked to see this side of Naruto, she could only look on as he continued his verbal assault. "while the rest of konoha celebrates the sacrifice my father made, they spit at me, curse me, beat me! This is the worst day of the year for me, I curse the day I was born! And the one time I feel like I am entitled to something, you have the nerve to ask why now? you should be asking why it took me so long!" Tsunade winced at that last one and felt a pang of guilt stab her in the stomach. She had shielded him as much as she could, but she could only protect him so much. Before her stood this frightened boy, only wanting love, and not even getting that. She saw the tear beginning to form at the corner of his eye, even though his stance was resolute.

"oh, Naruto" she said as she stood up and walked toward the blonde shinobi. As she reached him, she hugged him gently, offering her shoulder to him, which he readily took, and began to sob loudly, feeling the same sensation he had felt in his bedroom. All of his emotions flooding back were too much for him, and he let the tears flow onto her shirt. She rubbed his back gently, like a mother would, and waited for him to become calm again.

"I never knew my father." He said through tears and clenched teeth. "his legacy, his will is all I have left of him. He loved me, and I do not want to have that taken away from me like this village has taken everything else away from me." He sobbed again.

Tsunade thought to herself. _He has protected this village with all of his might for a long time, and has saved it more than once. If I do anything else right now, I'm gonna do right by him, the council be damned to hell. _

"shh, Naruto, it will be alright," she cooed, making him feel more calm. "nothing will be taken from you. It will take a little bit to get all of the scrolls from the library vault, but I can let you move into the old Namikaze mansion immediately." Naruto seemed to relax more into her arms. "Naruto, I want you to listen to me."

"okay, what?" he said, still bearing tears, but not so many.

"not all of Konoha hates you, Naruto. There are those who love you." Even as she said it, he knew it was true. He had become friends with several people in the village. he slowly regained his composure and disengaged from the only mother he had ever known. His blue eyes sparkled once more, all traces of anger gone, now replaced with that eagerness that befitted him.

"thank you so much for that, Tsunade." He said, slightly smiling.

Tsunade spoke "now, go, you better get moved in before nightfall, I wanna be able to rent that place you've been staying in out to somebody less loudmouthed."

Naruto smiled big and started walking toward the door. "I'll be sure to do that, granny Tsunade" and for maybe the first time, she did not feel the desire to throw something at him.

REMEMBER TO REVIEW! It's a necessary thing for an author.


	2. Chapter 2

**Bold is kyubi**

_Italics is inner thoughts_

This happens shortly after a diplomatic mission in the land of stone where Naruto is assigned as bodyguard of Temari. While on said mission, shinobi from the hidden stone village attack Temari, thinking she is a spy, because they were not expecting her arrival. After being beaten, Temari is saved by Naruto, everything is explained, and everyone went home happy, though Naruto was badly hurt in the battle (broken shoulder).

Also Naruto has obtained more control of the Kyubi's chakra, if not the spirit of the Kyubi itself. This means: he can form the chakra better, but he still has difficulty controlling the extreme hatred within the Kyubi.

Where we left off

"Not all of Konoha hates you, Naruto. There are those who love you." Even as she said it, he knew it was true. He had become friends with several people in the village. He slowly regained his composure and disengaged from the only mother he had ever known. His blue eyes sparkled once more, all traces of anger gone, now replaced with that eagerness that befitted him.

"Thank you so much for that, Tsunade." He said, slightly smiling.

Tsunade spoke "now, go, you better get moved in before nightfall, I want to be able to rent that place you've been staying in out to somebody less loudmouthed."

Naruto smiled big and started walking toward the door. "I'll be sure to do that, granny Tsunade" and for maybe the first time, she did not feel the desire to throw something at him.

Where we begin

As Naruto walked to what would soon be an empty apartment, scroll in his equipment pouch, he thought about how he would move all of his stuff from his apartment, or for that matter, where the Namikaze estate even was.

_I could use shadow clones, but they always mess around and I'd get nothing done. And besides, they always argue with themselves; jeez, I'm annoying when I'm around myself. _He thought this with a laugh, the only had to deal with one Naruto; when Naruto was training, and he had to deal with himself hundreds of times over.

As he was thinking, he just so happened to see the world's laziest shinobi come walking out of one of the leaf's grocery stores, closely followed by Temari.

"Hey Shikamaru!" he yelled, running towards him.

_Aw, man, this is sure to be something troublesome,_ Shikamaru thought as he tried to think up any excuse NOT to do what Naruto wanted him to do.

"Shikamaru, can you help me move from my apartment?" Naruto said quickly with hopeful eyes.

Shikamaru groaned dramatically, "come on, Naruto, I've got to get these groceries home."

"Ah, it's not like you couldn't help me, you lazy jerk, and besides, you don't even have that many groceries. And on another note, I would have bought you some lunch had you helped me."

"Come on, Naruto," Temari interrupted, "I'll help you even if he won't" she glared at Shikamaru, who gave a startled jerk. He regained his composure quickly though, and turned on his heel to walk away, groceries in hand.

"Whatever," he said wearily as he strolled away.

"Don't mind Shikamaru, he's just in a bad mood cause they didn't have his favorite brand of coffee."

Naruto thought for a second. "Okay! But why help me? I didn't really expect to have you helping me." He said, eyeing Temari suspiciously.

"Well," Temari started rather slowly, "I don't know THAT many people here in Konoha, and the people I do know seem to be on missions all the time. I've been looking for something, anything really, to do." She saw the look of slight sadness on Naruto's face, and realized that she'd basically told him that he was a tool to relieve her boredom, and felt a slight pang of sorrow. She noticed he still favored his left shoulder, which had been shattered in their last encounter with the hidden stone. "And, I never got the opportunity to properly thank you for saving my life on that last mission."

Naruto blushed slightly and rubbed the back of his head. "Ahh, it was nothing, Temari, I was just doing the mission. And besides, it wasn't that much trouble." Naruto observed the slight awkwardness of the silence that rested between them after he said that. "Come on, I'll show you my old apartment."

As they walked, Naruto's mind began to wander, as did Temari's. Naruto, about what could possibly be waiting for him at the Namikaze estate; Temari, what could possibly be waiting for her at Naruto's apartment. She knew that he was the "number one knucklehead ninja of the leaf" which probably meant that his apartment would be littered with trash and clothes.

Naruto spoke. "You said you didn't have anything to do, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Why don't you go on a date with Shikamaru?"

"What?" Temari was genuinely puzzled.

Naruto wagged a finger at her. "Oh COME ON, Temari, every shinobi in the leaf knows that you two have the hots for each other.

"What? Ewww, no!" Temari practically screamed as she shoved Naruto away. _Me with Shikamaru? I can't even think of him that way, much less go on a date with him! I don't even see him romantically! He's more of a brother than anything. And besides, he's lazy and stubborn. _"How could you possibly think that? He's more of a brother to me than anything, really." _I've got half a mind to hit him right now,_ she thought as she glared at him.

"Hey! Easy on the shoulder," Naruto said, getting up from where Temari had pushed him, gripping his shoulder. "No matter how you slice it, you can't deny that you two do spend a lot of time together, every time you're in Konoha you're with him"

Temari was forced to think about this. _I have been spending a lot of time with him lately…_

"So we gonna head to my apartment or not?" Naruto said, another goofy smile on his face. Temari felt the urge to kick him in the gut, but she told him that she would help him, so she would.

"Yeah, sure squirt" she said wearily. He just smiled more. _What is this guy's deal? Seems nothing gets his spirits down. _Temari smiled. She liked a challenge.

Soon, they arrived at his apartment.

"I'll get some boxes from the closet," he said as he made his way into the apartment. "Make yourself at home."

His apartment was clean enough, but it could use some freshening up. Though the thing that surprised her most was the surprisingly small amount of belongings that he had. There was his bed, the table, a few sparse pieces of furniture and clothing, and his ramen, which also surprised her. _Does this kid live on ramen? _She thought as she let her eyes wander, then she saw it. She didn't really notice it when Naruto put it down on the kitchen table as he walked in, but now it captivated her attention. It was a scroll, but it seemed so out of place in a place like this. It was expensive; she knew that, expensive silk ties around each end accented the scroll, which was a traditional white, contrasting beautifully with the striped orange and black of the silk. The paper was inlaid with gold, and had a symbol she couldn't quite make out. It seemed so far removed, in a place like Naruto's apartment, where everything was so cheap and unimpressive, here was this scroll. She hesitantly reached for it. _Why does Naruto have a scroll like this? Did he steal it? _Her hand almost reached the scroll when a kunai lodged itself in the table between her hand and the scroll. She gave a startled squeak and recoiled, ready to defend herself. She then saw Naruto, standing there, still with his hand forward, all the jocularity and happiness gone from his eyes.

"Don't touch that scroll."

She could only stare at him. _Why the sudden change? What's so important about that scroll?_ "Why should I?" she said as she reached for it again. This time, the kunai he threw left a small nick in her left index finger.

"I said, don't touch that scroll." The voice came from behind her then. _A shadow clone? But when? _"It is a private message to me from my father, the only thing of His I have in this world. You will not touch it." Those last few words came out as little more than a growl that actually caused Temari to feel a tiny bit of fear, which she quickly pushed do a deep corner of her mind.

"You can't scare me, squirt."

"I don't want to, I just want to make it clear that you may touch anything in my house BUT that scroll. You won't like it if you do."

She drove her elbow into the shadow clone behind her, causing it to dissipate with a puff of smoke, and drew a kunai with one smooth motion.

"Why is that scroll so important to you anyway?" she yelled at him, half because he had thrown a kunai at her, half because he told her what to do.

"It's from my father." Naruto felt his anger growing.

"**We could crush her like a bug," the Kyubi tempted. **

Temari snorted. "Your father? I doubt THAT kind of scroll is something he'd give you, judging by your lifestyle," motioning to his apartment.

"**She insulted your father, don't you feel anything about that?" he said again. **

"_NO! I don't do that, it's not my way!" _

"**Naruto, don't you love your father? Do you really want one of the scum Suna shinobi insulting his memory? Come on, you could do it quietly…" he said, honey dripping from his words. **

"SHUT UP KYUBI!" he screamed out loud, causing Temari to start. Naruto turned his eyes to her. His eyes were red. His canines also seemed to take on a sharper, longer appearance, and his whisker marks had become more pronounced. "And you! What do you know of my father, huh? You know nothing of my life, so stop talking about my father like he was some lowlife!" he roared, causing Temari to feel the first genuine fear of someone other than her younger brother, Gaara.

Temari was having trouble keeping her composure, the chakra emanating from him making her hair stand on end. She had to defuse this situation before they ended up destroying the building. She took a deep breath and spoke slowly and calmly. "Well, then tell me about your father"

Naruto's eyes seemed to take on a slightly less fearsome appearance, and the presence of his chakra softened. She also noticed that a tear was snaking its way down his cheek. She felt sorrowful that she had hurt him, though she didn't know why. She had never felt bad about hurting someone's feelings, but this time was different. _Why is he so different? _

"I never knew my father, he died shortly after I was born. His name was Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage!" Naruto stood tall in his mind when he said this. "And that is his last will and testament, and the only belonging of his that I own, and I will not have you touching it."

This statement genuinely shocked Temari. _This snot-nosed brat is the son of the fourth? How's he living in a dump like this? If he really is, then why isn't he wealthy?_

Naruto walked over to the table and picked up his scroll, never breaking eye contact with Temari, though the tears on his cheeks multiplied.

She spoke tentatively, almost gently, surprising even herself. "Then why don't you live somewhere nicer?

He broke eye contact and looked down. He raised the front of his shirt enough to allow her to see the seal that locked the nine tails within him. "I am the jinchuriki for the nine-tails that my father died sealing. If anyone knows what it's like, you do, you're Gaara's brother." He met her eyes again. "Everyone was afraid of me, and as a result of that fear, they hated me as well. I got beaten up on a regular basis, because the thing living inside me attacked my village and killed my father; and I am punished for it." He turned around and walked to the bedroom, where he put the scroll down with an uncharacteristic gentleness.

_He's just like Gaara, but he's different, _Temari thought, _he's just a lonely kid who's had his fate chosen for him. I shouldn't care about him, but I can't help but feel bad for him because of what he is. _

His voice came from the doorway, startling her from her thoughts. "You don't have to help me if you don't want to, I don't expect you to really care, though."

The reply came, unbidden, to Temari's lips. "It's okay, Naruto, I can help." She couldn't believe she'd actually said that. "And I wanted to say that I'm sorry for insulting your father, I didn't know."

Naruto's features softened a bit, and his teeth became more normal. "I know you didn't, I just can't abide people talking bad about a man who saved this village, much less my father." He gave a weak smile. "So let's get these boxes filled, shall we?"

"Sure."

The packing seemed uneventful, except for the occasional question by Temari as to where something went. It was quiet in the apartment, but in Temari's mind, it was tumultuous. _Why did I stay and help him? Why did I even offer in the first place? _Her mind was distracted and she felt herself drop something, followed by the sound of breaking glass. She looked down and saw a picture frame with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, along with Kakashi.

Naruto came out of the kitchen. "What happened?"

"I dropped your picture frame, I'm sorry" _why did I just apologize? _

"It's all right, Temari, it's just the glass that's broken" he said as he slid the picture out and put it on top of one of the boxes.

Temari felt curiosity rise within her. "So you were a team member with Sasuke Uchiha?"

"I was." Came his reply.

"It must have been hard, seeing him betray the village and run away." She said, absently rubbing the wall.

He paused. "Yeah, yeah it was. I may not have liked him at first, but we developed a companionship. We were comrades. It was hard on all of us, in more ways than one." _Sakura especially_, he thought with a sigh as he eyed the picture, refusing to meet her probing eyes. He relived his battles with Sasuke, both as comrade and enemy, in that moment; all the rivalry, all the hatred, all the conflict.

She noticed his mood yet again, and felt a desire to comfort him, which she recognized as very unlike her. "Let's move those boxes, Naruto."

"Yeah, let's do that," Naruto said as a smile broke out on his face "yeah, just let me get this box" he motioned to one of the largest boxes in the room. As he began to lift it, he gave a grunt of pain and gripped his shoulder. "Damn shoulder…" he said as he collapsed over the box.

Temari rushed to his side almost without thinking. "Are you okay?" she touched his shoulder gently. "You shouldn't exert yourself so much after you broke your shoulder." She said, the concern thick in her voice.

"Heh, I'll be fine, just give me a second to fix this up," he said as he removed himself from Temari's grasp.

"What?" Temari inquired, "how are you gonna fix a broken shoulder in just a second?"

"It's a special power unique to the Kyubi, it takes a shitload of chakra, but it's a nice power to have." As he said this, he turned to face her, and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. As he did this, Temari saw a slight red glow extend from his body, bathing him with a slightly red hue. He put his hands together; and extending them outwards from his body, expanded the glow into a distinct sphere around his body. The glow intensified until his body was barely visible. It stayed that way for about five seconds, and then suddenly a loud popping sound emanated from the sphere. A loud whooshing like a strong wind followed, the condensed chakra around his body being sucked into his shoulder. As the last bit of chakra was sucked in, Naruto screamed and fell to the ground, panting heavily. Temari ran to him again.

_What kind of jutsu was that? Maybe he really is the son of the fourth, _she thought as he began to get up. _He really is amazing. _Temari had never been one to like a guy, but this Naruto had captivated her since they had met. _Why is this one so different, _she asked herself as she helped him to his feet. Naruto's chakra reserves were legendary among the hidden leaf, and her being a liaison had let her clue into this. As his breathing steadied he returned her gaze. _His eyes are so beautiful,_ she thought absently. Their faces were so close, she might…

And that's when she kissed him.

It was a quick kiss, just a touching of the lips, but it held so much more for her. It was her first kiss.

Naruto had never been one to blush, but this caused him to blush a deep hue, along with her. "Uhh, what was that for?" he said nervously.

Temari overcame her blush and smiled a bit.

"I said I never go to properly thank you for saving my life." She kissed him again, this time more confidently, and he kissed back, much to her surprise. "Thank you."


	3. Chapter 3

JUST AS A REMINDER I HAVENT SEEN NARUTO IN A WHILE SO SOME DETAILS MAY NOT MATCH UP.

(Nor have I ever read the manga.)

Thank you all for the reviews I have gotten so far, I hope for many more.

Where we left off.

And that's when she kissed him.

It was a quick kiss, just a touching of the lips, but it held so much more for her. It was her first kiss.

Naruto had never been one to blush, but this caused him to blush a deep hue, along with her. "Uhh, what was that for?" he said nervously.

Temari overcame her blush and smiled a bit.

"I said I never go to properly thank you for saving my life." She kissed him again, this time more confidently, and he kissed back, much to her surprise. "Thank you."

Where we begin.

Temari lowered her gaze, blushing again. She turned away, mentally berating herself. _You idiot! Why did you kiss him?_

Conflicting thoughts welled up within her, her instinct to push away any desire she felt toward someone, and another, deeper desire to embrace him, run her fingers through his hair.

"Temari, wait." He said as he gently tugged at her shoulder until she turned. She slowly faced him, meeting those deep blue eyes for just a second before she broke their shared gaze. Nervousness was a very hard thing for Temari. "Temari why won't you look at me?"

Temari blushed even harder. "Well, you see, I've never kissed anyone before, you were my first." She turned away from him again, afraid of showing emotion.

"Oh, come now Temari," he pleaded, "If it's any consolation, you're the first girl I've kissed." _Though not my first kiss,_ he thought as he remembered Sasuke and mentally shuddered.

"Really?" she asked. She didn't think that would be the case.

"Yeah, it was nice, definitely better than the last time I kissed somebody." He said with his trademark grin.

"What? I thought you told me that I was your first kiss." Her nervousness was slowly being replaced with intrigue, and that intrigue was quickly being transformed into frustration.

"Uhh… not exactly, Temari" Naruto said with a nervous grin.

Suddenly something clicked in Temari's mind. _Oh, god, he's gay, _she cried within her mind as she stared at him, shock staining her features.

Naruto looked at her, puzzled. "What?"

"You're gay?" she asked, more a statement of fact than a question.

Naruto almost jumped out of his skin. "WHAT?" he screamed, "NO! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

"**You did act rather strangely around Sasuke" **Kyubi taunted.

Naruto did his very best to Glare at Kyubi, as much as a man can glare inside his own head.

"Let me explain, Temari…" Naruto pleaded, trying desperately to salvage a deteriorating situation.

_Aha! Now I've got the upper hand, _she thought as she smiled.

"No, Naruto, it's ok I won't tell anyone," Temari said, false concern coating her words.

"I'M NOT GAY!" he yelled.

"Yeah, Naruto, I know," she said, winking at him. Naruto groaned.

_Great! My first real kiss, and she thinks I'm gay!_

"**Called it" **

"_Dammit, Kyubi, shut up!" _the fox's laughter ran through his mind.

"Let's just move these boxes down to the cart. I can use shadow clones from there," Naruto said wearily; it was almost noon and he wanted to have this done by four. He quickly dispatched a shadow clone to the Hokage mansion to find out where exactly he was moving.

As Naruto lifted the box that had given him so much trouble before, Temari reached out to help him. He surprised her, being able to hold and move with ease what had given him so much pain just a few minutes ago. _What the hell kind of power WAS that? _She grabbed one of the smaller boxes and brought it down the hall to the entrance of the apartment complex, where a wagon was waiting.

As Naruto was moving his box into the wagon, he saw Lee approaching. Lee saw Naruto and ran to meet him, extremely curious and excited.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" he asked enthusiastically.

"I'm moving to a new place, Lee." He said with a smile at Lee's excitability. He could always cheer Naruto up.

"Really? That is awesome, Naruto, we must celebrate! We must have a house warming party! We will show all of Konoha the power of youth by partying all night! We will have food, sake, and companionship!" lee positively screamed as he jumped for joy.

Naruto shuddered, remembering his last experience with lee and his drunken fist.

"Maybe not the sake, Lee" he said.

"No matter, we shall still have a night to remember!" he yelled as he embraced Naruto. At that exact moment, Temari walked out of the apartment building and laughed at Naruto, who blushed.

_He's gonna be amusing to poke fun at, _she thought as she gave him another sly wink.

"**She TOTALLY thinks you're gay." **Kyubi said, before laughing again. Naruto groaned wearily again.

Lee finally disengaged from Naruto. "Do not worry yourself about preparations, Naruto, Just be at your new place at six." Lee was about to take off when he realized something. "Uhh, Naruto? Where is your new place, anyways?"

As if on cue, a flood of memories came to Naruto's mind from his clone.

"It's just south of the Nara compound, you know the place?"

"I do indeed, Naruto. You must have saved up a lot to afford that place!" Lee exclaimed.

Naruto sighed, remembering his father's will; and all the things he had to fight for before obtaining respect and recognition from his fellow ninja. "Yeah, Lee, I suppose so."

As Lee sped off, no doubt to tell everyone possible about Naruto's move. Naruto sighed and sat down on the cart. Temari sat with him. There was a slightly awkward silence as neither of them spoke.

"You kissed me," he said flatly

"You kissed back"

"Yeah, I suppose I did" he said, looking down. "It's just that I don't know if I want a relationship right now. This is a big change in my life; I'm now head of a clan. I now have an equal vote at the clan table. I just don't know if I'm ready. I really like you, even though you mess with me a lot." He chuckled. "I don't want to hurt you. Frankly, I'm afraid of hurting you."

"Naruto." He was now the one that couldn't meet her eyes. "Naruto please look at me." He did, a somber look that seemed to apologize to her. "Whether I get hurt or not is my decision, and my decision alone; don't make this decision for me. I don't want you taking responsibility for something that is my decision; and plus, nothing has even happened yet." She cupped his cheek lovingly. "Don't be afraid, Naruto."

She leaned toward him, and closed her eyes. Naruto tried his best to resist, but an irresistible force seemed to draw him toward her lips. They kissed again, gently, each of their mouths soft and inviting. She broke the kiss and they looked into each other's eyes. She smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you in line."

Naruto rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Yeah sure, Temari, like you could."

She punched him on the shoulder; still surprised it was now fully healed. "I could and you know it," she said, smiling.

He turned to her and kissed her.

"I thought you weren't ready for a relationship." She said.

"How bout we find out?" He said, and kissed her again. Every time he did that, he felt a warm feeling spread through his stomach. It felt wonderful. She stopped kissing him, and began to turn in the direction of the Hokage mansion.

"I should probably go, the Hokage wants me at a meeting, and I'll probably be late if I wait any longer." Temari said.

_I should probably get going too, _he thought. Then he thought of something else.

"Hey Temari?" he said, grasping her shoulder and turning her to face him.

"Yeah?"

He blushed. "Would you wanna go out on a date with me sometime?"

She giggled and kissed him lightly on the cheek, which made him blush even more. "I think I might." She turned and began to walk away, smiling as she did so. _I have a good feeling about him,_ she thought.

Naruto felt pretty all right, considering all of the things that had gone on today. Maybe it was just Temari making him feel good. He formed a couple dozen shadow clones and had them start taking shifts with the cart. As he walked alongside his shadow clones, he wondered what would be waiting for him at the Namikaze estate. He had often seen it while visiting Shikamaru, but he had always thought it was part of their territory. Apparently, according to his shadow clone, the Namikaze estate was built as an addition to the Nara compound, because Minato was particularly close to them. Come to think of it, Shikamaru and me are pretty good friends, Naruto thought with a smile as he walked. As he approached his new residence, he was surprised by the size of it. Several floors tall and covering an impressive amount of area, he was surprised why a rich noble hadn't bought it before. _Maybe old man Sarutobi didn't want to sell it, _he mused as he remembered the late Hokage. He smiled as he remembered the first time he met him. He laughed_; even the Hokage fell for my sexy jutsu._ Soon enough, he reached the main entrance to his new home, where Shikamaru was reclining on the steps, watching the clouds.

"Hey Shikamaru, what's up?" he said as dismissed his shadow clones. Shikamaru said nothing as he continued to stare upwards. Naruto had begun to think that he was asleep when he finally spoke.

"I knew there was something different about you, Naruto. Ever since the chunin exams, I knew that you would be a great ninja. I guess I should have known that your father was the fourth."

Naruto walked to the steps and sat down with Shikamaru. Naruto didn't really want to admit it, but he enjoyed watching the clouds every once in a while, they reminded him that the world could be a tranquil, peaceful place from time to time. "I'm glad you believed in me, Shikamaru. I'm glad that even though I'm a Jinchuriki, not everyone hates me."

Shikamaru got up. "Come on, Naruto, I've been tasked with showing you your new home." Shikamaru smiled; he was glad that Naruto had a place to call his own now. He had seen Naruto fight for everything he had, and was happy that Naruto was finally getting some respect.

Naruto was immensely excited. "Alright!" he exclaimed as he sprang up from the steps.

AT THE HOKAGE MANSION.

Tsunade looked around at the four advisors seated before her, not surprised, but furious anyways. _Why do I even have these advisors? They seem to just make things harder, _she thought as she sighed, trying to dissipate some of her anger.

"Do you people even realize all that Naruto has done for this village?"

"Yes, we realize this, but he still contains the Kyubi, and we-"

"Are still afraid of him!" Tsunade finished with a yell. "Maybe if you took the time to know him you'd figure it out that he's not as bad as you think!" she slammed her drink down on her desk, causing the glass to shatter.

"Yes, but perhaps we should hold off on giving him a seat at the clan table-"

"You will hold off on nothing. Naruto has done more for this village in his time since he's come back with Jiraya than most of you people have done in a lifetime! You are here to advise me, not to make decisions, and my decision is that Naruto will get all that he has been promised in Minato's will. And if I even think that you're keeping something from him, I will brand you all as traitorous ninja; for which you already know the punishment." The advisors seated at the table all gave a collective shudder.

"Yes, lady Hokage." They said collectively as they slowly backed out of the room. _Naruto, I won't let you down,_ she thought.

"Shizune!" she yelled, causing the Hokage's assistant to give a startled squeak. "I want you to make sure that all of the scrolls make it to Naruto, and I mean ALL of hem."

"Yes, Lady Hokage." She said, bowing and leaving quickly, not wanting to be in the same room as an angry Tsunade.

Shizune heard Tsunade yell as she left. "And where the hell is Temari?"

NAMIKAZE ESTATE (like an hour later)

Naruto was amazed at the luxury of this place; of course, never having lived in any kind of grand setting influenced him heavily.

"There isn't really any food stocked in the fridge or freezer, so until you buy some food you're welcome at our table, my father says that we'll be just like him and Minato." Shikamaru said. "Ahh, and here's the master bedroom and bathroom."

As Naruto walked into his new bedroom he was amazed. The whole room was laid out in a deep orange color, accented here and there with black. _My father had good taste,_ he thought, chuckling to himself. A massive four-post bed sat on one wall, next to it was a window that would let the morning light in. As he further explored the suite, he walked into the bathroom and noticed a sunken bathtub that was large enough for him to soak his whole body, and a standing shower next to it. It was a large bathroom, easily double or triple the size of his old one.

"I'll let you settle in, I want to take a nap before the party," Shikamaru said, turning for the door.

"Okay, Shikamaru, I think I need a shower anyway." He started. "Wait, how do you know about the party already?" he asked, pointing an accusing finger at his fellow shinobi.

"Lee has a big mouth, a very, VERY big mouth." Shikamaru said.

Naruto laughed_; he sure knows how to get around, too._

Shikamaru spoke again. "I almost forgot, here" he tossed a small key to Naruto. "That's the key to your new home. You deserve it." He said, before sauntering out.

The key held a pleasant weight to Naruto. He went and sat on the bed. It felt luxurious. "I should probably take a shower, it's almost five." He said to himself, looking at the clock. As he was about to begin his shower, there was a ringing he recognized as a doorbell. _A doorbell? Awesome!_ He thought, as he had never had need of one before. As he ran towards and opened the door, he noticed Shizune standing just beyond the threshold, with something akin to a bookshelf on wheels beside her.

"What's with the bookcase, Shizune?"

"These are all the scrolls that your father has passed on to you, including this one." She produced a very large scroll from behind the bookcase. "This is the Uzumaki/Namikaze clan scroll that your father compiled after becoming the fourth Hokage. Please be careful with these; they are very valuable."

Naruto looked like a kid in a candy store. "Don't worry, Shizune, I'll take good care of them," he said as he wheeled the cart into the foyer. _My house has a foyer! _He told himself excitedly as he returned for the clan scroll. _I'll keep this one in my bedroom; I'll probably want to look at it later. _

He finished putting the cart and scroll into his room with the help of a couple shadow clones, and then went on to his shower.

_It'll probably be a long night, _he thought to himself as steam filled the large bathroom.

Please write me a review, you can (hopefully) congratulate me on a wonderful story, or you can tell me about my egregious misuse of word processing, either way, external opinions are appreciated!

Oh, and I don't own Naruto. I don't support slavery, even in the fictional world.

"A man's character can easily be judged by how he treats those who can do nothing for him" Beryl Markham.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hey guys, I think I'm gonna try to update with small chapters, almost like a miniseries, anywhere between 1500-2500 words per chapter, hopefully around a week between them, though this is very rough at this point. Also, feel free to make suggestions, as I'm writing this more for my skill and it'd be nice if you all suggested things. Thanks in advance! Please remember to review!**_

_**Where we left off.**_

As Naruto was about to begin his shower, there was a ringing he recognized as a doorbell. _A doorbell? Awesome!_ He thought, as he had never had need of one before. As he ran towards and opened the door, he noticed Shizune standing just beyond the threshold, with something akin to a bookshelf on wheels beside her.

"What's with the bookcase, Shizune?"

"These are all the scrolls that your father has passed on to you, including this one." She produced a very large scroll from behind the bookcase. "This is the Uzumaki/Namikaze clan scroll that your father compiled after becoming the fourth Hokage. Please be careful with these; they are very valuable."

Naruto looked like a kid in a candy store. "Don't worry, Shizune, I'll take good care of them," he said as he wheeled the cart into the foyer. _My house has a foyer! _He told himself excitedly as he returned for the clan scroll. _I'll keep this one in my bedroom; I'll probably want to look at it later. _

Naruto finished putting the cart and scroll into his room with the help of a couple shadow clones, and then went on to his shower.

_It'll probably be a long night, _he thought to himself as steam filled the large bathroom.

_**Where we begin**_

Naruto walked out of the shower feeling like a new man. He grabbed a convenient towel and dried himself as he looked around for some clothes, ultimately realizing that he hadn't brought any of his clothes upstairs with his things.

_Shit, _he cursed silently. _Maybe there's something in the closet. _As he opened what he now realized was a large walk-in closet, he saw clothing lining the walls and they even looked close to his size!

"Wow…" Naruto thought as he looked at what were now his clothes. He eventually settled on putting on some black slacks and a deep orange shirt, with the Namikaze clan symbol on the back of the shirt in black.

He also noticed the full-length jacket at the front of one of the racks; it was white with orange flame designs on the bottom. He smiled, vaguely recognizing it.

"Maybe next time, father," he said to no one in particular.

He looked at the clock and realized that he had a few minutes before the party was going to start, so he decided to look at the large scroll that Shizune had brought him. He went over and opened it, scanning the pages until a certain article caught his eye.

"Yellow flash jutsu?" he mused, reading aloud further. "This technique can be done with or without hand seals, but beginners should practice with hand seals." Two minutes later, Naruto stood in his room with a small piece of paper containing a tag seal next to the door. Scrolls on various topics lay scattered around the room, as he had to search for some of the complicated seals involved in the jutsu. As he was about to begin forming his hand seals, a knock on the door interrupted him.

"Yes?" he asked, calling to the door.

Shikamaru's voice came from beyond the door. "You're gonna miss your own house warming party, you're almost as late as Kakashi." He said, with an edge of frustration to his voice.

"Alright, alright, get your panties out of a twist." He said, grabbing the paper and opening the door.

Shikamaru motioned towards him. "Come on, the party's already started. All the usual suspects are there, Kiba's with Hinata already, Neji's already hitting the sake pretty hard and trying to keep it away from lee, and flirt with Tenten all at the same time. Kakashi got here just before I came up, and will probably be leaving soon, with Anko." Naruto laughed, _as if Shikamaru needed to tell me what they were doing, I could've guessed pretty easily_.

They walked into a large room that Shikamaru had shown him before; he'd said that it was basically built for such occasions as parties.

He noticed the large number of people there. All of the rookie nine and their senseis, Tsunade, Shizune, Anko, Iruka and many others he knew.

"_See, Kyubi, not everyone hates me now, I have friends and comrades." _

"**Yeah, but always remember they used to treat us like shit." **Kyubi muttered.

"_Kyubi, one of these days I'm gonna need to find out why you hate everything so much." _

"**We can talk about this later.** **For now, enjoy your friendship." **Kyubi said, shutting himself off from Naruto's mind. Naruto walked through the room, accepting congratulations from his fellow ninja.

"Congratulations, Naruto!" he heard a familiar voice say.

"Old man Teuchi!" Naruto exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing much, I just heard that an old friend of mine was having a house warming party and needed some catering, so I came!" he said as he slid a bowl of miso ramen in front of him "Here, eat up!"

As Naruto ate, Kakashi sat next to him at the bar, holding a bottle that he assumed was sake.

"Are you liking your new place?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's a really big change from my old apartment; though I still find it hard to believe that all of this is really mine," Naruto said, making a wide gesture towards the rest of the room.

"Have you thought about how to christen it yet?"

"Christen it? You mean like this party?"

Kakashi sighed, smirking. _He's so innocent_, Kakashi thought. "It's usually something more… personal, something intimate." He said, standing now. "I think I'm gonna head out, I got to walk Anko home."

A voice beckoned. "There you are Kakashi!" Anko said, a little loudly. She wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled his shoulder. "You gonna 'tuck me in'?"

Naruto laughed as they flawlessly seduced each other. As Kakashi left and Naruto was left with a moment to think, he turned to view the rest of the room. He saw his friends, his companions, eat and drink and enjoy one another.

"**You should say something" **he felt Kyubi speak into his mind.

"_I don't know what to say"_

"**They are your friends and they respect you, they'll understand." **Kyubi said before retreating

Naruto smiled. _Kyubi even seemed to care just then. _Naruto cautiously stood, unsure of what he was going to say. He climbed on a chair rapped on the wall with a fist. All eyes slowly turned towards him, which gave him an odd sense of courage. He saw that he had friends who knew and loved him. He spoke, cautiously and nervously at first, but then with more confidence.

"Most of you probably have heard the news that I'm the fourth Hokage's son. But, however great my heritage is, and no matter how humble my beginnings, there is nothing I value more than you people. And however great this occasion is, there is no greater honor than having you people as my friends." He raised his glass towards them.

"And we're honored to have you as ours," He looked over and saw Sakura raising her glass. "To Naruto!"

"To Naruto!" they all yelled, hoisting their glasses.

Naruto's eyes watered, he was overjoyed to see the act of love his friends displayed. The toast unofficially ended the party, however, a few stayed.

Naruto, Sakura, Neji, Tenten, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji and Temari sat in a circle as the Konoha night waited for them outside.

They laughed, teased, and reminisced long into the night. Gradually, the subject turned to who was dating whom.

"Well," Kiba said, "you already know who I'm dating," Kiba leaned toward Hinata and put a soft kiss on her cheek, causing her to blush, and Neji to scowl.

"What about Gaara? We haven't seen him in ages, has he got somebody?" Tenten asked Temari.

Temari smirked. "No, although he's been sending flowers to a jonin named Inasha, secret admirer-like. I think she's caught, hook line and sinker."

They all gave a laugh.

"Haha, just like I taught him," Naruto said, trademark grin covering his face.

"Oh, come on, Naruto," Shikamaru said, "We all know you didn't teach Gaara anything." He said, teasing his orange-haired friend.

"Yeah, yeah, says the guy who's a 'genius ninja', but can't see love right in front of him." Naruto retorted.

All eyes but Shikamaru's turned to Ino.

_Oh, God, _Ino thought. _He knows! What will he say?_

Shikamaru slowly turned to Ino. She blushed, and as Shikamaru walked over to her, the whole room quieted.

Ino looked away nervously. "It's okay if you aren't attracted to me, I understand"

He took her chin and gently lifted it. He whispered to her, so low only she could hear it. "Who said I wasn't attracted to you…" as he leaned in and softly kissed her. After he broke the kiss, she hugged him.

"Thank you, Shikamaru" she said, looking into his eyes.

"My pleasure" he smiled and kissed her again. After cheers from everyone, they sat together, hand in hand.

"But that doesn't mean you're not inexperienced, Naruto." Shikamaru teased again.

Several in the room chuckled.

"Well, I wouldn't say he's THAT inexperienced" Temari said as she stood. Every eye was on her as she walked over to Naruto and sat in his lap, snaking her arms around his neck. "I like him just fine." She said innocently and kissed him deeply.

Every mouth in the room gaped at the sight. After a few seconds, some of the ninja in the room regained their senses.

"Well, Damn." Shino said rather loudly, downing another shot of sake. Choji spoke.

"Shino, you found anybody yet?" Naruto was still kissing Temari.

"Actually," Shino said, "I am going out with someone," the room gasped, Naruto even stopped kissing Temari. "But you all have to promise not to tell anyone until we're ready."

They all gave their word. The room's occupants waited impatiently as Shino spoke. Naruto could have sworn he'd seen Shino smile.

"It's me and Ayame," he said.

"What?"

"Really?"

"Awesome!"

"When?"

Shino didn't expect the barrage of questions that followed and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Yeah," Choji said, stretching, "I think that's it for me too, guys." Naruto noticed that he'd replaced the fat of his younger days with muscle, and although he wasn't cut like Naruto or Kiba, he was a head taller and had them by at least fifty pounds. He'd also gotten extremely good at taijutsu.

As Choji got up, Shikamaru and Ino stood. "We're gonna leave, too, I'm going to walk Ino home. Temari laughed, as did Naruto, Kiba, and Sakura.

"What?" Shikamaru asked.

"Oh, nothing, it's nothing," Naruto said, still laughing.

Shikamaru and Ino walked out frustrated, but not for long.

"We should probably go too, the annoying old Hyuga wants her home at what he calls a 'reasonable hour'" everybody laughed, knowing the hoops that Kiba had to jump through to date Hinata, and although he'd always said that it was annoying; he didn't really mind, and it was his way of showing his love for her. Naruto smiled pleasantly as they walked out, and nuzzled close to Temari, who in turn came close to him.

Neji turned to leave, tipsily muttering something about watching Kiba; but he didn't get far before Tenten caught up with him and planted herself firmly on his arm. Naruto noticed that sakura was staring at him. He mused; over the years, he'd grown out of his crush for her, and they'd slowly built a good friendship. She'd blamed him for a long time for his failure to bring sasuke back, and even more for a while because of what followed, but she'd since seen just how wrong she was, both about Naruto and Sasuke.

"How's Kankuro doing?" she asked, apparently looking at Temari instead.

"Eh, he's Kankuro, what can I say? He has been pretty down lately though, doesn't leave his place much, and when he does it's not for long.

Sakura was obviously concerned. "What happened?"

Temari sighed. "He was dating one of the Jonin and she cheated on him. He ended it, but it still hurt him a lot. Gaara is doing his best to comfort him, as best Gaara can. He just needs to have somebody to take his mind off her; I'm thinking about having him take a vacation here next time I come for a diplomatic mission."

_Sakura looks really sad,_ Naruto thought as the pink-haired kunoichi made her way out. _Sakura seemed really concerned about Kankuro, maybe more concerned than normal… _

He spoke. _"_Hey, Temari, you don't think Sakura-"

"Absolutely," Temari replied. "They've become really good friends, even though he lives in Suna. I think Sakura is ready for something more though; Kankuro may not realize it yet, but he'll come around."

There was a brief period of silence; though he did not think it odd. Silences were not awkward when he was around Temari; he was content just to be with her, no words needed to be spoken. A thought came unbidden to his mind.

"Hey, Temari, you don't have a curfew or anything do you?"

Temari chuckled. "Well, I would usually be bunking in the room next to Shikamaru next door, but with Ino being there, I'm not sure if I want to be over there right now."

Now it was Naruto's turn to laugh. "Yeah, I doubt you'd get much sleep there."

Temari leaned in and kissed him. "And besides, I thought you might want to christen this place." she resumed her attention to his lips.

The realization of that word hit him like a freight train.

_**Flashback-**_

Kakashi sighed, smirking. "It's usually something more… personal, something intimate."

As Temari deepened the kiss, Naruto broke it.

"Temari." He stated.

Temari's face was marked with concern. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

Naruto looked down. "It's not that I don't like you Temari, I really do, but I don't want to rush things, especially since we just started to realize our feelings. I really don't want you to hate me, but I don't want to have sex with you until we're both ready; and you may be, but I'm not. Please don't hate me for it, Temari." He refused to look at her.

Temari smiled, if he'd just done anything, it was increase her confidence in him. He didn't want to ruin this, and neither did Temari. _It's okay, Naruto, I'll wait for you. _"Naruto, I don't think I could hate you if I wanted to." She said, running her hands through his surprisingly soft hair. She thought to herself then realized something.

"Oh, and Naruto?"

"yeah?" he said, sitting on the couch, feeling her snuggle up to him. _I could fall asleep like this_, he said, admiring the kunoichi in front of him.

"Happy birthday." she said, resting her head on his chest.

_It is my birthday, isn't it? _He thought, wondering at how he had gone from beatings from the villagers to being a clan head. _Ahh, life's like that, I guess; _he mused as he began to doze off, smile on his face, and happiness in his heart.

_**Thanks for reading, please feel free to message me with ideas or comments, good or bad. PLEASE REVIEW! If I don't get feedback, how do I know what to write? **_

_**Oh yeah, and I don't own Naruto or any of that stuff. **_


	5. Chapter 5

Hey guys, this chapter is kinda small, but it's kinda soon and my girlfriend was sick on Friday and Saturday so I took care of her, hence the shortness of this chapter. Please keep reviewing with suggestions and critique; also, I thought I'd introduce an antagonist. Oh and also, if you haven't read the previous chapters PLEASE DO SO.

If I owned Naruto it wouldn't be fanfiction. It'd be fanFACT.

_**Where we left off. -**_

As Temari deepened the kiss, Naruto broke it.

"Temari." He stated.

Temari's face was marked with concern. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

Naruto looked down. "It's not that I don't like you Temari, I really do, but I don't want to rush things, especially since we just started to realize our feelings. I really don't want you to hate me, but I don't want to have sex with you until we're both ready; and you may be, but I'm not. Please don't hate me for it, Temari." He refused to look at her.

Temari smiled, if he'd just done anything, it was increase her confidence in him. He didn't want to ruin this, and neither did Temari. _It's okay, Naruto, I'll wait for you. _"Naruto, I don't think I could hate you if I wanted to." She said, running her hands through his surprisingly soft hair. She soon drifted to sleep, laying next to Naruto.

_**Where we begin. -**_

Naruto stood in the ankle-deep pool where the Kyubi lay, behind his solid bars.

"**No matter how hard you try, Naruto, you cannot fight what is within your own heart." **Kyubi taunted.

Naruto collapsed and clutched his head in agony. Images flooded his mind of him being beaten; of him bloodied and broken in an alley after the mob had it's way with him. He saw the glares of all the villagers, felt their stares at his back, and he didn't deny that he felt the anger build, but not his anger.

"_I'm not like that anymore, Kyubi!" Naruto screamed at the fox. _

"**Oh, but that's where you're wrong, Naruto. You hate the village just as much as I do, you've just locked it within you," **the fox said.

Naruto felt a new vision wash over him. His friends looked at him, hate marring their faces. He was standing in a clearing in the woods, being approached on all sides by those who were precious to him, each one drawing their kunai.

"**Naruto, do you think that your 'friends' care for you? They do, but not in the way you think. You've become a powerful ninja, and since they can no longer beat you, they became your 'companions', your 'comrades'"** he spat the words outin disdain**. "They would gladly kill you if they could, but they don't for fear of dying themselves." **

Naruto looked at his friends, even Tsunade was there. He looked at her, feeling his heart sink to a familiar place where he accepted his fate. He looked at Tsunade with pleading eyes.

"Why, Tsunade?" he said as she slid her kunai to his throat.

She looked at him with anger on her face.

"Because you are a failure, Naruto."

Naruto felt a red chakra take his body as he fell into darkness, screaming.

Naruto awoke jerked awake, finding himself covered in sweat, and more tired than he was when he went to sleep. He looked around and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw Temari, standing in a corner, looking at him as if he were a wild animal.

"Temari," he said as he stood quickly. Too quickly, in fact, and he collapsed onto the ground.

Temari, seeing the sudden change from the animalistic screaming to a caring demeanor, rushed to his side and turned him until he faced her and he was in her arms. Naruto's eyes watered and he buried his face into her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Temari, I'm so sorry." He said.

"You were screaming, Naruto," she said tentatively. "What's making you have these nightmares?" she asked, although she already knew the answer.

He grew somber and silent. After a few moments, his breathing eased and he spoke slowly, eyes never leaving the floor. "Even in sleep I can't get away from the Kyubi."

"It's ok, Naruto, I'm here." Temari said with all the comfort she could summon to her voice, as she desperately searched her mind for something to take his mind off of it. "What do you do to escape it?"

Naruto seemed to calm down a bit as he spoke. He remembered his training with Jiraya, and summoned to his mind one of the ways he would rid himself of the Kyubi's presence. "I usually go train for a few hours to get over the nightmare. It occupies my mind, makes the Kyubi seem more distant than it actually is," he said, pressing his hand to his stomach, the seal felt unusually warm.

_Naruto, I want to make you forget all about the Kyubi within you,_ she promised to herself as she looked at the night of the hidden leaf.

"We can go train if you want, Naruto," she heard herself say.

Naruto gave a smile, but Temari somehow knew he wasn't smiling in his heart. "I think I'd like that, Temari." His eyes went wide and his smile became more genuine. "Oh, I know. I could try out that new jutsu." Temari smiled tentatively, _the better to get his mind off the nine tails._

A few minutes later, in the deep Konoha night, Temari looked on as Naruto set a piece of paper with a small seal on the ground. Temari stood at a distance because he said he didn't know all about this jutsu and she should stay back a bit. She saw Naruto form a few hand signs.

"Alright, the scroll said to not put too much chakra into the jutsu." He reminded himself as he formed the hand seals and directed his chakra.

Temari saw the small flash of orange just before a giant explosion rocked the forest, throwing her backwards and sending her tumbling. She quickly righted herself and noticed that the explosion was right where Naruto was. _Oh, no! _ She screamed within her mind as she rushed over to the edge of the fifty-meter wide crater. She couldn't see much thanks to the huge dust cloud, but could see Naruto standing in a small perfect circle of grass, untouched by the explosion.

"**You're a stupid shinobi you know that? The scroll even said not to put too much chakra into the jutsu or you'd vent the excess and cause an explosion!" **Kyubi berated him.

"_Yeah, well if I'd have known that it would be THAT big, I wouldn't have put so much chakra into the jutsu!" _he yelled back.

"**Whatever kid, either way, you're fine. As the jutsu resolves itself and you appear, everything that would have hit you literally gets dematerialized"**

"_Wow, that's awesome!" _Naruto said

"**Though your ladyfriend might have some bruises." **

_Oh, no, what happened to Temari?_

"Temari!" he called, halfway choking on the dust hanging in the air from the explosion. He heard the reply come from her standing form a long way off, and Naruto realized that the explosion had touched her too. The dust began to settle, gradually allowing a clearer line of sight to Temari as he ran toward her.

Temari stood, gaping at the giant crater that Naruto had just made in the forest. _Shit, _she said to herself as she wondered. As she stood, slack-jawed, Several ANBU members appeared bearing the masks of bear, fox, and badger. They turned to her, hands on pouches and ready to fight her.

"What happened here?" badger asked. As he did, Naruto appeared from out of the smoke, coughing as he emerged from the dust hanging in the air. He froze as he saw the ANBU members gathered around her. They repeated the question to Naruto, who gave a nervous smile.

"It's okay, Badger, I was just practicing a new jutsu and it went a little wrong," Naruto said, doing his best to smile while standing in front of an exploded forest.

Badger sighed, wearily, as if this was a regular annoyance. "No, Naruto, it's not okay. We can't have you blowing up half the forest in the middle of the night. You'll make people think that someone is attacking the village. I'll have to suspend your training."

"Oh, come on!" Naruto whined.

"No, Naruto, you know the rules, you are supposed to report any high-level jutsu you are learning to the Hokage." Badger reprimanded him with an experienced voice. He turned to fox and bear and whispered something Naruto couldn't make out.

(However, since this story is in the third person, WE can!)

Badger whispered to his two companions. "Watch Naruto from the shadows, make sure he doesn't blow up any more of Konoha." He said wearily again. _And I thought tonight would be peaceful for once._

"Yes sir," they whispered back and melted into the shadows as if they had never been there in the first place, making Naruto shudder.

"Naruto, you will meet with the Hokage tomorrow to discuss your 'training'. Until then, go home."

Begrudgingly, Naruto complied with badger's orders. Temari followed at his side, walking with him.

"Well, at least they didn't think you were trying to destroy the village," Temari said, trying to cheer him up.

"Yeah, I suppose so." A moment of silence passed before he spoke again.

"I haven't had a nightmare like that in a long time." He said, kicking a grey pebble into the nearest building, where it clacked against the timber of it.

Temari sighed. "I fell asleep next to you, but you woke me up. You were twitching and mumbling, but I wasn't sure what about. Then you began to tense up and scream like you were in pain. You looked… savage, Naruto." She cringed as she heard his outcries in her head.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like that, Temari. Even though it's not as bad as before, I still have to fight it, if not for my sake, then for the sake of those I love. I can't afford to let the Kyubi control me."

Temari smiled slightly. Although his sadness tempered it, she felt immense admiration for Naruto. She slowly reached her hand towards his and entwined her fingers into his even as he returned the action. _Whoa, his hand is really rough_, she thought, feeling a twinge between her legs as she imagined his hand in a more, _intimate_ position than it was now. She blushed at the thought. Naruto noticed and smiled.

"What?" he said, his grin made her blush more. She didn't hide her face from him this time, captivated by his eyes, which she noticed was uncharacteristic of her, but she paid the realization no mind.

"Your hands are rough, even for a ninja." She said, turning her attention to his hand, which she had moved between hers, and was examining it.

Naruto gave his trademark grin. "It's my rasengan. When I get the chakra to form, even though I keep it contained, it still rubs my skin. The first time I did it, it gave me a few cuts on my palm, though I didn't mind much," Naruto said, remembering with pleasure how he'd put a rasengan into Kabuto. "It was even worse when I used the rasenshuriken for the first time. I couldn't throw it yet, so I just shoved it like a rasengan. It nearly destroyed the chakra network of my arm," he said, clenching and unclenching his fist, as if to make sure that his arm was still usable. Temari winced. She'd seen Naruto's rasenshuriken only once, but once was enough for her. _Having his arm caught in that must have been debilitating,_ she thought. "Since the rasenshuriken that I throw forms farther away from my hand, it doesn't rub that much." He smiled warmly, his whisker marks tilting upwards. She smiled back, cheered by his happiness. As they walked past the buildings of the hidden leaf, Temari was content; something she hadn't felt in a long time.

As Sasuke knelt above the corpse in front of him, he realized with coldness that he was now truly the last Uchiha. He smirked and took the mask from him, donning it for himself.

I read this chapter to myself and immediately after the end of it, I heard the lost TV show soundtrack when something like this happens; you know, that doom-doom, really ominous-like. But other than that, PLEASE review this story, mostly with suggestions and critique, and if any of you want to read this as a beta then PM me and we can discuss it. But till then, PLEASE review!

Stay classy.


	6. Chapter 6

Alright, new chapter! Naruto finally goes to a clan meeting! What will they say? Find out below!

I don't own Naruto.

_**Where we left off. **_

As Sasuke knelt above the corpse in front of him, he realized with coldness that he was now truly the last Uchiha. He smirked and took the mask from him, donning it for himself.

_**Where we begin.**_

"Kabuto" He said coldly.

"Yes, Sasuke?" the silver-tongued ninja said.

"Make sure the rest of the Akatsuki are aware of the change in management. You lead the Akatsuki now. My revenge is complete."

"Yes, Sasuke. Are you sure you don't want me to heal you?" Kabuto said, motioning to the gash in Sasuke's leg, which had stopped bleeding, but still looked life threatening.

"No, Kabuto, just do what I tell you." Sasuke said, voice like a razor.

"Of course, Sasuke." He said, and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke knelt and began to heal his leg. He wasn't as skilled in medical ninjutsu as Kabuto was, but he could manage the cut on his leg; and besides, he needed everyone to know as quickly as possible. Finished with his healing, he set off in the direction of the hidden leaf, leaving Kabuto to deal with the Akatsuki.

Naruto opened his eyes just enough to see the drawn curtains on the window, holding back the morning light, as Temari tried to nudge him awake.

"Naruto, wake up." The orange ninja smiled and grabbed Temari's arm, pulling her into the bed and wrapping his arms around her. She laughed and mock struggled while he wrestled with her on the bed.

"You're beautiful, you know that?" he said, grinning at her. Temari smiled and kissed him, disengaging from his embrace.

"You really need to wake up, Naruto." His eyes followed her as she walked towards the window and opened it, momentarily blinding him.

"Ahh, Temari! Why'd you have to do that?" he moaned, rubbing his eyes.

She began to pull the covers off of him. "Because we've been summoned to see the Hokage."

Naruto's mood was lifting as he enjoyed Temari's company. "Oh, alright, if you insist," he said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up, enjoying the cool feel of the dark wooden floor on his bare feet. He looked over at Temari and remembered what happened last night with a groan. _Man, Tsunade's gonna kill me,_ he thought as he remembered the explosion, then a new thought, more important than the others, presented itself. He walked over to Temari and examined her, pressing his hands against her body as if checking for something.

"Are you okay, Temari? I don't want to have hurt you."

"No, Naruto, I'm fine, I walked home with you, remember?"

"Yeah you did, but still I want to make sure," he said. She gave a giggle as he passed a spot on her hip; and Naruto stored that memory for later. He finally stopped, satisfied she wasn't injured.

"Happy now?"

He nodded.

"Good. Now get a shower and some nice clothes, Hokage's orders."

Naruto groaned "will you come with me to see lady Tsunade?" he asked.

"Well, since I've been summoned to see her at the same time, I think I could manage. The only thing is, I've got to get a change of clothes from the Nara place. I'll be right back."

Naruto entered the shower. After that, he donned some of his father's nicest clothes and met Temari outside his place. He still marveled at the size of the door, he felt very small next to it. He then glanced at Temari. She was wearing a black kimono with a white sash. Naruto stared at her and smiled._ She looks really nice, wonder why I didn't notice before?_

Naruto spoke eagerly. "So, we gonna go?"

"Sure." Temari said, smiling back at him.

The first thing Naruto noticed was Tsunade's scowl. Her mouth didn't really change when she did that, it was mostly her eyes. _Great_, Naruto thought, _I hoped she wouldn't do that. _

"Naruto, what am I going to do with you?" she said, sighing loudly. "Tensions are already high because of the Akatsuki, we can't have you running around blowing holes in Konoha."

Despite Naruto's playfulness, he really did hate disappointing Tsunade. He felt really bad, especially since he didn't mean to do it.

Temari spoke. "Lady Hokage, if I may, the explosion was an accident, it was a jutsu gone bad."

"Yeah, granny Tsunade, I didn't mean to, I-" Naruto began.

"I don't want excuses, Naruto. I won't suspend your training any longer, but I do however forbid you to do it at night, or near any buildings or people."

"Awesome!" he said, although still a bit pained that he'd disappointed her. He felt her eyes on him as he was turning to leave. "I guess that's it, then."

"Naruto, wait." She said, with the tone she used with him when he was out of line. "As you know, you now have a seat at the clan table. Your first meeting is today at eleven, in an hour. Temari will be your advisor, since she has extensive diplomatic experience." _And nobody else would treat him with any kind of respect. _She produced a scroll from the pile of them on her desk, and threw it at him. He caught it and examined its surface. It had red caps and a black tube. "Inside is the schedule for the meeting as well as where you should be." Her voice and demeanor changed to somewhat of an apologetic one. "Naruto, they're not going to like the fact that you're there, not after your fight with pain. That said, don't let them ever put you down or insult you. That goes for you as well, Temari. Keep him safe in that room."

"I will, Lady Hokage." She said, resting a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto was slightly more eager. "I won't, Granny Tsunade, you can count on me!" he exclaimed, giving Tsunade a thumbs-up before turning and leaving with Temari.

_I sure hope so,_ she thought as she turned back to the mountain of paperwork that sat before her on her desk.

"So, tell me about these clan meetings." Naruto said to Temari. "And how do you know so much about them, anyways?"

"Since I became permanent liaison to the leaf village, I've been sitting as an ambassador from Suna to Konoha; which requires me to be at all the meetings," she said, reaching for his hand, which he opened for her. She looked at the Hokage monument, now noting the resemblance between the Fourth and Naruto. She smiled as she imagined Naruto's face next to Tsunade's. _It would be fitting,_ she thought.

"Hmm," Naruto said, thoughtful. "So what are the meetings like, anyway?"

Temari pushed her distractions away and answered. "There are twenty civilians elected to present the needs and concerns of the citizens of the village, and every clan has their head present. Presiding over the meetings are the Hokage and her advisors. Each person may bring one advisor, and send them to places as needed. Issues are resolved usually between the two areas or clans involved, or in the case of a village issue, a vote is taken. The issues regarding ninja are voted on by the clan heads; with the civilian rulers getting one half vote. Issues involving civilian concerns are handled the other way around. In the case of an emergency, if the safety of the village is at stake, the clan heads can take control of the village for a short while, but it requires a unanimous agreement by all of the clan heads." Temari sighed. "The clan heads respect you for the most part, Naruto, because they know you. I can't speak for the civilian leaders."

"Nah, Temari, It'll be okay." Wanna get some ramen before we go?"

"Sorry, Naruto, but we really can't. The clan meeting starts in thirty minutes, and it's good to be there early." She noticed Naruto's defeated expression. "Trust me as your advisor on this."

"Okay, Temari."

As they arrived at the large building, Naruto wondered how people would react to seeing him there.

"Ready?" Temari asked. She really admired him for accepting this position.

"Ready." He said.

As they entered, Naruto saw two large semicircular stone tables, each with twenty chairs behind them, along with chairs behind them for advisors. At the far end where the semicircles met, there was a large, raised desk, and two smaller desks beside it on either side. They saw many of the clan heads there; He immediately recognized the Nara, Hyuga, Aburame, akimichi, inuzuka, and yamanaka clans; and others he did not recognize. It was segregated, with nameplates on chairs for civilians and clan symbols for the heads of clans. As Naruto and Temari made their way to their seats, a large man in a bright red dress suit stopped in front of them. A scowl was painted on his face as he looked down at them.

"You don't deserve to be here, boy." He said flatly as he walked past them, bumping Naruto's shoulder as he sauntered off.

"**Don't you just hate how everyone here hates you?"**

"_Kyubi, I don't hate them. They just haven't gotten to know me." _

As Naruto was talking to Kyubi, Shikaku Nara walked over to them.

"Hey, Naruto; Temari." He said, looking at them respectively. "You two will sit by me during the meeting."

Shikaku led them to a chair next to him. On his other side sat Hiashi Hyuga, who looked dark and brooding as always. As he wondered when he would get his next meal, Tsunade walked in, holding several scrolls; followed by Shizune and her advisors. As she made her way to her desk, the lingering members of the council went to their seats and sat down. Only when they all sat facing him at the other end of the room did Naruto notice that most of the civilians were looking at him with either disdain or hate, or a mixture of the two. Naruto had learned a breathing exercise from Jiraya, and used that to help ease his anger. He was doing this as Tsunade spoke.

"Alright, before we begin, does anyone want to say anything?" _as if I don't know already,_ she thought.

The same man in red as before stood up and pointed at Naruto. "Why is that scum in here?"

Naruto was about to object when he heard a voice next to him. Hiashi Hyuga was standing, angrily looking at the man in red.

"You address the head of the Namikaze clan, Homura, and your input on whether he is scum or not is neither needed or wanted." He said flatly, but with a force that Naruto had never heard from the man before.

Another man stood up, this one in dark blue. "Either way, he still almost destroyed the leaf village!"

Temari spoke this time. "He didn't do it and you all know it's true! It was the nine-tails, not him!"

The man named Homura spoke again. "It doesn't matter, he's still the container, and that's all he'll ever be!"

Naruto was battling his anger. **"They think you have no power, Naruto. Prove them wrong, and I will grant you more of my chakra." **he said as red tendrils crept forward from behind the bars of Kyubi's prison.

"_They just don't know me, I would understand if I were in their position." _

A crash shook Naruto from his thoughts. Tsunade had turned her desk over and the scrolls on it crashed to the floor. "ENOUGH!" she yelled, visibly frightening the civilians. "Naruto is the rightful heir to the Namikaze clan. Homura!" Homura flinched. "Do you contest his right to be here?" he shook his head, cringing away from Tsunade. Tsunade turned to the rest of the room. "I chose Naruto; not just because he's the rightful heir, but because he will do the right thing. Anybody else wanna argue about it?" everybody shook his or her heads. "Alright, then, it's settled. On to the first order of business."

The meeting progressed with a slowness that amazed Naruto. _I didn't even know that it was POSSIBLE to argue over the best color scheme for a building,_ he thought. He went with Temari on pretty much every vote, not really worrying because most of the concerns were civilian. There were a couple of concerns among the clans, like who was short on kunai and how big a collective shipment would arrive. Naruto tried to be interested, he really did, but it was just so BORING.

Naruto was glad when the meeting was finally over. He and Temari went back to his place, where Naruto suggested they take a nap.

"We didn't get a lot of sleep last night, did we?" she said, yawning and taking off her kimono to reveal a tank top and a pair of shorts, both white. She lay on the bed and motioned for Naruto to come and lay down. He lay behind her and placed soft kisses on the back of her neck as she slowly drifted off to sleep. He was still awake though. It was pretty dark in the room, due to the blinds and As Naruto looked around the room, he was surprised to see a shadowy figure standing in one corner. He leapt out of bed, trying not to wake Temari, and addressed the figure.

"Who are you?" he asked the shadow, even now not completely sure that it wasn't a shadow.

"Now, Naruto, after the time we've spent together, I'd think you'd at least recognize my voice."

_No, it can't be, _Naruto thought frantically as he recognized the voice.

"Sasuke?"

Thank you for reading! PLEASE PLEASE review!


	7. Chapter 7

Key:

_Thought_

**Kyubi**

Speaking

^scene break

_**author notes, and other things like that. **_

Still thinking about giving Naruto a dojutsu. Enough to make it interesting, but not enough to make him godlike. I think he can still get his ass handed to him, even if he is the kyubi jinchuriki.

_**Where we left off.**_

Naruto was glad when the meeting was finally over. He and Temari went back to his place, where Naruto suggested they take a nap.

"We didn't get a lot of sleep last night, did we?" she said, yawning and taking off her kimono to reveal a tank top and a pair of shorts, both white. She lay on the bed and motioned for Naruto to come and lay down. Naruto took off his shirt and settled in with her on the bed. He lay behind her and placed soft kisses on the back of her neck as she slowly drifted off to sleep, though he could not. He replayed the scene of Tsunade yelling at the council in his mind, wondering if it really was good if he didn't have a council seat. It seemed like it only made things worse. Finally deciding he could not sleep as he had suggested, he sat up on the bed.

It was dark in the room due to the blinds. Naruto let his eyes roam from the source of low light from the edge of his black curtain, to the night stand beside his bed, where he'd placed the photo of team 7. His eyes came to rest on Temari and he smiled. he reached out and pulled the covers up over her and As Naruto looked around, he was surprised to see a shadowy figure standing in one corner. He leapt out of bed, trying not to wake Temari, and addressed the figure.

"Who are you?" he asked the shadow, even now not completely sure that it wasn't a shadow.

"Now, Naruto, after the time we've spent together, I'd think you'd at least recognize my voice."

_No, it can't be, _Naruto thought frantically as he recognized the voice.

"Sasuke?"

_**where we begin. **_

Naruto stared, dumbstruck, as the masked man stepped forward. He took a step back and tried to draw a kunai from a pouch that wasn't there, and silently cursed his luck. He surveyed his surroundings for anything he would be able to use against Sasuke. Finding nothing, he cursed to himself again and settled for a battle-ready stance, expecting to fight Sasuke, whether he was in his boxers or not. Naruto noticed that sasuke was wearing the loose white shirt that he normally donned nowadays, along with the large rope tied around his waist, and his chidori sword. There were bloodstains on his clothes, and as he walked, there was an obvious catch in his gait, as if he couldn't put weight on his right leg.

"Naruto, I didn't come to fight you, I came to talk," emotions still roiled in sasuke, but he kept his face calm, despite the physical and emotional pain he was feeling. Taking his old friend's silence as permission to speak, he started with his story; but before he could, he grunted and collapsed into a sitting position as the blood loss and pain took its toll.

"Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, rushing to what was his comrade, concern for him overriding his wariness at the moment. Naruto noticed that Sasuke's eyes were looking elsewhere though. He turned and saw Temari facing him, kunai in hand, with a dark visage.

"Sasuke Uchiha! How dare you show your face here, I'll kill you myself!" she yelled, rushing him.

"Temari, No!" Naruto yelled in return, catching Temari by the waist and lifting her up into the air. In a much softer tone, he said, "don't hurt my friends."

Sasuke's eyes widened, and he felt the shield that hid his emotions cracking. _even after all this time, after all I've done, he calls me his friend. If anyone ever deserved to hate me, it's him, and yet he's the one who doesn't._ Even as sasuke thought this, temari voiced it. "he's betrayed the village, he's a missing nin! Why do you protect him?"

"Because he's my comrade, that's why! If you killed him you'd be no better than any of the Akatsuki! If you kill out of hatred or revenge then you destroy yourself in the process."

"Temari of the sand, I did not know you two were together, but listen to naruto. I've come to realize that if you seek to kill for revenge, you should dig two graves. That's what I came here to talk to you about, Naruto. I became a machine of hatred and revenge, I know what its like and I don't wish that on anyone. Naruto, I killed Itachi, then the person who helped him. I thought I would feel different though. The more I thought, the more I wondered. I've killed many people, Naruto, how many people will be consumed by hatred just like I was because I killed a husband and father? How many will grow up with hatred in their hearts because of my atrocities?" sasuke felt tears roll down his cheeks but he didn't care; he was too overcome by what he'd done for him to stop. "I see them in my dreams, Naruto; they haunt me. I don't want to be remembered like that. I want to come home, Naruto." sasuke sobbed, letting years of pent up emotions out As he buried his head in the crook of his arm.

Naruto put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, on the verge of tears himself.

"you know I can't make that decision, sasuke." sasuke had calmed somewhat And looked up at him. "I have to tell the Hokage. Though I don't have to tell her right now. I suggest you see Sakura though; she can heal you better than I can. You should hide out somewhere until i contact you, too."

Sasuke nodded "thank you, Naruto"

"Now go, before you attract any undue attention."

As sasuke vanished, Naruto turned to face Temari. Naruto smiled a bit. Though touched by sadness, Temari noted that his smile was genuine.

"Sasuke's coming home," he said as his smile broadened.

Naruto walked towards the new Hokage mansion, wondering if it would ever look as nice as the old one. It was almost exactly like the one he remembered, but it was lacking. And as Naruto walked, it struck him. _it lacks age,_ he thought to himself simply, examining the walls more thoroughly now that he was slightly closer. The familiar chips and cracks in the walls weren't there. _It lacks familiarity, too, _and although Naruto didn't deny the new one was cool, it wasn't the one he remembered. He looked up at the figure he now recognized as his father and smiled. _But it also means a new beginning._

"Excuse me?" Tsunade inquired, thinking she heard the blonde wrong.

"Sasuke came into my house yesterday wanting to come back to Konoha." Naruto said matter-of-factly.

"This had better not be one of your antics, Naruto."

"Would I pull a prank about Sasuke?" Naruto questioned with a serious look.

"No, I suppose not," Tsunade sighed, "Shizune!" the startled squeak that came from beyond the door showed that she was listening. "I want Sakura and Kakashi in here as soon as possible!"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade," she said with as much calmness as she could muster; and sped off down the corridor.

As Kakashi and Sakura arrived, Naruto was still arguing with the Hokage.

"We don't know if he's playing on your emotions or not! This could all be an elaborate ruse to get inside Konoha, and destroy us from within. Naruto, I know you feel for sasuke, but I can't just let him in because you say so. He's a dangerous ninja. if we could keep him from using any of his skills as a ninja it would be a different story, but he's incredibly powerful and letting him in would only put lives at risk right now.

Naruto fumed because he knew she was right. He couldn't prove anything at all right now, and he'd have to wait. _Why is everything so difficult with that damnable Uchiha? _As he thought this, he felt the presence of Kyubi pressing against his mind.

"_Not now, Kyubi. Whatever you want, it can wait." _

"**No, I'm afraid it can't, Naruto. It has to do with the Uchiha." **

"_Why do you care? You've never expressed any interest in anything other than getting out of that cage before."_

"**have not. And besides, I'm starting to like it here. Of all the jinchuriki that have had me inside of them, you are the one that makes me think that not all of you humans are bad." **

"_what the hell are you talking about?" _

"**ever since the great sage created me, I've been used as a weapon; nothing more, nothing less. I was a tool to be used, of no more emotional value than one of your kunai or shuriken. I was a tool for hatred." **

"_then why tell me now? And either way, I don't think of you as a tool." _

"**because of your reaction to the Uchiha. I expected you to kill him, honestly. Maybe there's hope for you yet, Naruto. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. You know of your mother, Kushina Uzumaki?" **

"_Yes, I know of her, but what does that have to do with Sasuke?" _

"**the Uzumaki clan specialized in sealing jutsu, like the seal on your stomach. If used correctly, you could seal the Uchiha's chakra away." **

"_meaning?"_

"**you're an idiot, Naruto. Do I really have to spell it out for you?" **Naruto was silent, waiting for the exclamation from the fox. **"it means that Sasuke could come back to the village and he wouldn't be a danger to anyone, and even if he did have ulterior motives, he wouldn't be able to do anything. Furthermore, you could remove the seal at any time if you think it appropriate."**

"_how do I know you're not trying to trick me?" _

"**You don't, Naruto. You could look at the Uzumaki clan jutsu scroll if you don't believe me." **

"_then why tell me of this? why help me?" _

"**consider it a favor for all the hurt I've caused you." **As Kyubi's presence receded from his mind, Naruto was full of questions.

_I'll need time to look for a jutsu to do it, and I'd need to get granny Tsunade's permission, _Naruto thought as his mind came back to his surroundings. Sakura was currently arguing with Tsunade, taking up the same position that Naruto had just a few minutes ago. Kakashi was silent, except for an interjection or observation now and again. Sakura looked like she was about to punch Tsunade when Naruto finally spoke.

"Granny Tsunade?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto my position hasn't changed," she said wearily, not wanting to deal with another problem today.

"What if I could seal his chakra like my father sealed Kyubi?"

Tsunade stared at Naruto, wondering what had just gone through the boy's head. It was crazy, what he was suggesting. _But it could work if he did it correctly,_ she reminded herself.

"Dammit, Naruto, why do you have to make things so difficult. Yes, it might work. But you'd have to prove to me that you could do it before I'd let you, lest the seal backfire."

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed, already almost at the door when he heard the Hokage's stern call. He slowly turned to see Tsunade with a grim face she rarely showed anyone.

"Naruto, if I have any reason whatsoever to suspect Sasuke of treachery, I will not hesitate to kill him, and neither will the other ninja of the leaf."

Naruto smiled. "I understand, Granny Tsunade, I promise I'll get hi-" Naruto was cut short as a paperweight made a dent in the wall he was just standing in front of.

"And quit calling me granny!"

"Alright, Alright, jeez. Yes, _lady hokage," _he said, putting forth effort to make it sound official. "and if you will so kindly excuse me, I would like to go find a certain jutsu."

"Just go, Naruto." She said. _He's troublesome,_ she thought, not even realizing that the thought was almost exactly like a certain nara's.

"Ok, Granny. OWWWW!" this time the paperweight connected with his skull, sending him stumbling out of the doorway and out of her sight. Tsunade rubbed her temples. _That kid'll be the death of me._

"you two are free to go, and Kakashi, see if you can help him with his sealing jutsu. Please make sure he learns a safe way to seal it, and not how the fourth sealed it."

"sure thing," Kakashi said before leaping out of the window.

Naruto left the Hokage mansion, looking around for something to do. _I could go get some Ichiraku's, _he thought, but dismissed the idea as he had eaten before he came. _I could do some more training for that funny yellow flash jutsu! Ahh, but I'll have to tell everybody to stay away from me while I do it, not easy if I want to practice with any number of shadow clones._ He stuck his hands in his pockets, meandering down the road, going nowhere really. As he walked, he noticed he'd come to a certain part of town he hadn't been in for a long time. Naruto had only been here once before. As he walked, he crossed in front of a house with large stone walls. There was a large crack in one of the walls that Naruto recognized, mostly because he caused it. _Well, I did and I didn't, _he thought, remembering being thrown against the wall by a couple of drunk chunin. They beat him up good too, that is until Kakashi rescued him. Kakashi had been there for him when the villagers turned their hatred towards him, but sometimes he hadn't been there. Naruto shuddered as he felt the edge of a scar on his chest that even the Kyubi wasn't able to heal.

As Naruto was about to walk past the house, a rustling in one of the bushes caught his attention. He watched as a fox appeared from behind it. Naruto was a little surprised that it didn't run though; in fact it walked up to him and pressed itself against his leg.

"**seems you have a friend, kid," **kyubi said as Naruto knelt and scratched the fox's head. the fox seemed to like it, releasing something akin to a purr and a growl mixed together.

"_yeah, guess so."_

"**Listen, I wanted to talk to you. It's about earlier today, when you met the Uchiha."**

"_what about it?" _

"**I've been around a long time, Naruto, but I don't think I've ever seen something like that."**

"_yes, I'm so glad to have the approval of an ancient evil demon fox" _Naruto thought sarcastically.

"**it means that I think I can trust you. I am not a machine of hatred and I am tired of being used."**

"_So, you trust me because I…..?"_

"**because you don't use me as a weapon. And since I'm privy to your thoughts, you don't even seem to want to. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm starting to like you, Naruto. I might even give you something nice; that is, if you're a good boy." **The fox's laughter echoed through Naruto's mind.

"_condescending ass,"_

"**arrogant prick," **

Naruto began to walk home, noticing the light orange tint to the sky signaling that dusk was approaching, and as he was walking up to his house the sun had painted the sky like a giant canvas. Pink tinged the bottoms of clouds, gradually moving to orange and purple and finally to blue at the tops of them. Naruto walked into his house. _I don't think I'll ever get used to having this much space,_ he thought as he wondered what would fill all of this space. As he was lost in thought, he felt a rubbing on his calf. Looking down, he saw that the fox had followed him home.

_aww, man, why'd the fox have to follow me home?_

"**the fox likes you, Naruto. They're good companions."**

"_well, look who I've got to compare him with and maybe you'll understand."_

"**just keep him around for a while, kid; maybe he'll grow on you. If he gets big enough, you could use him like a shinobi dog." **

"_yeah, right Kyubi. He's barely up to my knee!"_

"**yes, but he's still young."**

Naruto thought about what the fox had said, and finally decided that he would keep the fox for a while, considering he had enough space for it now. He walked into the kitchen which he had stocked yesterday (mostly with ramen). After rummaging around he found some food that the fox seemed to like. He filled a bowl with water and food and put it on the ground as the fox began to hungrily eat. As he did, Naruto heard Temari walk into the kitchen.

"Did somebody make a new friend?" she asked, padding across the floor towards Naruto.

"I guess, he followed me home. I think I'll keep him for a while."

"I guess if he gets big enough he could be like a ninja dog. You think so?"

the fox laughed. **"Told you." **

"Maybe."

Temari leaned in and kissed him, a kiss he gladly returned. As their kiss deepened, Naruto wondered what other surprises would be in store for him tonight.

AHA! Another chapter ends, and another should begin shortly! I will accept no flames for bringing sasuke back to Konoha or for him being sorry for leaving the village. He's sorry about what he did, and he wants to fix it now. Also there will probably be sasuke bashing and angst on sakura, much council bashing.

But the big deal here is, should I put a lemon in it or not? I'm thinking of putting a lemon in it, but if I do, it will be very explicit and rough, since Temari is used to being in control, and Naruto is, well, he's got a demon fox spirit inside him.

PLEASE REVIEW! Every time someone doesn't review a story on fanfiction, a kitten gets diagnosed with leukemia. Don't give kittens leukemia. Review my story…

All thanks to everyone who reviewed, they were very helpful!


	8. Lemonhas no bearing on the story

THIS CHAPTER IS A LEMON

Ok read that above statement again. Now read it a third time. Got it? So no complaints for people who don't like lemons? Good. Now if you don't want to read the lemon, you don't have to. It's a free Internet people (if someone can tell me why Microsoft word capitalized the word Internet could they tell me? back to story). You will not be missing any important story developments if you don't read the lemon. That said, this goes for any and all pairings and lemons requested in the future. I REALLY don't want this to be a lemon-filled story, I just want to add one where it feels appropriate. It's explicit. They do the do. Go all the way. Play hide the salami, lay some pipe, have a sausage and donut situation, go heels to jesus, (you get the idea.)

Shouts to SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan and Jinchuuriki-San and Rixxell Stryfe for giving good reviews and helping me feel out some Ideas for the story!

ANYWAY, on to the story.

Naruto didn't have to wait very long to figure out though. As Temari kissed him she tired of leaning over and let herself fall into his lap, sitting sideways and wrapping her arms around his neck. Naruto put his arms around her hips, pulling her closer as she deepened the kiss, their tongues mingling, tasting each other again. Temari chuckled and Naruto broke the kiss, smiling nervously.

"What?" The male blonde questioned.

Temari gave another giggle. "You taste like ramen."

"Oh…" Naruto fake pouted, but his eyes were playful.

"I never said I didn't like ramen," she said before returning their lips to the position they enjoyed most, _especially if it comes in Naruto flavor. _This time she contained her chuckle as Naruto picked her up, bridal style since she was sitting in a position convenient for it.

"Let's move to more comfortable scenery," Naruto said, walking up the stairs toward the bedroom, resuming their kiss. Thankfully, their most recent guest decided to curl up on the kitchen mat for a nap.

Naruto was thanking Jiraya for his lessons about women, and cursing him for not letting him get any 'hands-on' training. (A/N: he was also thanking the author for writing this scene.)

As they reached the bedroom, at an unspoken agreement from both of them, Naruto let her down, barely separating their lips as they did so. They both realized what the other wanted, and as they moved slowly towards the bed as to not separate their lips, they both realized what they would be doing. As Naruto placed one hand on Temari's upper back and one just above her rear to press her closer to him, Kyubi made a very unannounced appearance.

"**Oh boy, kid, you really must keep her around; she is much too fun for you to let go," **kyubi said, then laughed maniacally as several images of them in 'interesting' positions flashed through his mind, courtesy of one demon fox.

"_Dammit, Kyubi, shut up,"_ Naruto thought as he pushed the offending demon away from his consciousness. As they neared the bed though, Naruto had another idea. He pushed her forcefully up against the wall next to the wardrobe and pressed himself against her as if the clothes they had on were preventing them from being close enough together. He then began to trail rough kisses down to her neck, causing her to gasp and tangle her hands in his orange hair. She smelled lightly of vanilla and citrus. _I love this smell, _Naruto thought as he returned his ministrations to her_._ Naruto smirked as his fingers slipped under her white tank top, playing with the hem of her shorts, but never moving downwards tracing his fingers on the smooth skin of her hips, teasing the soft skin. Temari moaned lightly at the feel of his rough fingers caressing her sides, and wondered when he would take her damn clothes off. To Naruto, every touch he gave her, every time she tangled her hands through his hair, every sensation they shared was intoxicating. Now, Naruto understood why Jiraya liked women so much.

Temari was about fed up with how slowly Naruto was going, and decided to take action. She placed a foot behind Naruto's and pushed off the wall, tripping the boy and causing him to land on his back. Temari fell with him, ending up on top, and straddled him.

"My turn, tease," she said.

Naruto pulled her face towards him and smiled. "Shut up and kiss me."

With that, their lips joined again and Naruto felt his shirt being pulled off. He let her, reluctantly separating their lips until he felt the cool wood flooring against his back. Temari was no less of a tease as she ran the tips of her fingers down his chest, stopping here and there at a spot that seemed sensitive. She rubbed his nipples gently, producing a moan from him, and decided that she couldn't tease him forever, and returned the favor by removing her own shirt. Although he thought she was removing the accursed piece of clothing too slowly, once it was gone Naruto stared blatantly at Temari, who now only wore a black bra to cover her chest. He smiled mischievously. Her breasts were beautiful.

"Like what you see?" she asked, putting her hands on his chest and keeping her arms straight so it squeezed her breasts and put them closer to him. Naruto's response was to push her up, sit up himself, and raise himself over her until she was below him. He half-growled in her ear.

"Take it off. Now."

Temari shivered as his hot breath grazed her ear, and as he moved warm lips down to capture her neck, nibbling and sucking as Temari arched her back to reach behind her, and unclasped her bra, letting the soft fabric come loose. Naruto was now kissing her chest above her cleavage, paying special attention to her collarbone, which caused her to gasp softly. He came to the fabric of her bra and kissed the skin over it. He began to lower it, kissing every inch of soft skin as it was revealed. Temari bit her lip, wanting him to go faster, but not wanting to beg. She smirked and began to undo his pants, his breath hitched as she ran her fingers around the outline of his growing member encased in boxers, enjoying the reactions she received from him. Regaining his focus somewhat, Naruto finished taking off Temari's bra and took in the sight of her yet again. _Delicious,_ he thought to himself as he leaned down and captured a nipple with his mouth and suckled it gently. Temari gasped as his hot mouth enveloped her nipple, tongue flicking across the rapidly hardening nub of pink flesh. She gripped his head as if to keep him there. Her gasps and whimpers only enticed him to go further, dragging another hand up lazily to grope her other breast, the firm yet pliant flesh filling his hand. She produced a low moan deep within her throat, a testament to her enjoyment of his intimate touch. Temari's moans became louder though as he ground his hips into hers. He released the nipple in his mouth and blew on it, the sudden change in sensation from hot to cold causing her to gasp.

"OH! Naruto, don't be a tease." Temari said, breathless as he rubbed himself against her yet again, their hips joining for just a moment before denying her the sensation.

"I'm just returning the favor, Temari. Maybe if you ask nicely I'll let you up," he said huskily as he returned his lips to her mouth again, invading it with his tongue possessively. Temari didn't like to ask though, she was used to taking, and that's exactly what she planned to do to Naruto. Using the floor as leverage, she flipped them, landing on top and straddling him.

The fox roared with laughter. **"Oh, marvelous! You'll have fun with her, kid, I can tell!"**

Much of this was lost on Naruto, however, as Temari was grinding against his hips with significant fervor, enjoying the hard lump that presented itself. Naruto felt her juices rub off onto his boxers, signaling her arousal, the warm, wet feeling adding another sensation. He placed his hands on her hips and guided her to a different position. _Damn, she looks so hot right now, _he thought.

"Oh, Narutooooo…" Temari dragged out the last syllable into a moan that made Naruto's spine tingle.

Temari laid herself on his chest, the joining of their skin a pleasure in itself, still moving her hips against him deliciously. The heat building between her legs was becoming unbearable, if she didn't find some way to quench it she felt like she would soon go crazy. Naruto began to move his hips upwards in time with hers, and grabbed her ass with both hands to get a better angle. Temari's sanity was again threatened as Naruto's groping aroused her even more. She looked at him, breathless with need, eyes glazed over with lust, cheeks flushed with desire.

"The…bed…mmm…" she said, each word between pants.

Naruto stood, and immediately Temari was on him, lacing her fingers around his neck and wrapping her legs around his hips as he held her. He walked over and laid her on the bed gently, and began to kiss down her neck, nipping the soft, sensitive skin. As he moved downward, kisses following, he sucked one of her nipples into his mouth, earning a moan from Temari as electric jolts of pleasure made their way down her stomach and into her core. All too soon, Naruto's mouth left her nipple and traveled downwards again, stopping for a bit at her navel, circling his tongue around it before moving on. As he came to the fork between her legs, he took her panties off and smelled them. He didn't smell much, but there was a hint of saltiness to it. Temari never thought she'd think a guy smelling her panties was hot, but oh boy, it turned her on. Naruto bent down and began to kiss tentatively licked along her slit with the tip of his tongue, earning a significantly loud moan from his female companion. Encouraged by her sounds and by her taste, which he noted was salty with a hint of sweetness, he pushed his tongue past her outer lips and felt around her moist cavern, enjoying the pleasure he was giving her. Temari arched her head back and let out little mewls and pants, goading him on. As Naruto began to lick her pussy again, upwards from bottom to top; as he reached the top, she spasmed under him. Temari squealed his name as his tongue passed over the little nub on her pussy. Encouraged again by her squeal of delight, Naruto passed his tongue over the point of flesh again. This time, Temari bucked her hips against his mouth, almost screaming his name.

"Naruto! Ohhh…yeeeessss" Temari moaned as Naruto placed a finger into her hole.

Naruto knew a lot about sex. Hell, he'd written a book about it. (A/N: wrote one of the icha icha series I forget which.) But, Naruto didn't know that her reactions to his touch would be so damned arousing! Just knowing that he was the cause of her pleasure, that HE was the one making her moan, that it was his name on her lips made him want her all the more.

"Please, Naruto, I can't wait any longer," Temari said, breathless.

Naruto got the message and came back up to her, removing his boxers to reveal his manhood. Temari eyed his dick hungrily. Naruto leaned over her, positioning himself at her entrance. He looked at her questioningly, and after a slow nod, Naruto began to slowly push inside her. Temari bit her lip and pulled Naruto closer to her, moaning at the glorious intrusion. Naruto hissed as he felt Temari's tight, wet, pussy enveloping him.

"Temari…ungh…you're so tight," Naruto grunted as his length sank further and further inside of the hot haven that was Temari.

"Yes, Naruto, slide your cock into my pussy," Temari said as she noticed how dirty she sounded. It aroused her further. He stretched her, almost painfully, but any pain she would have felt was completely overrun by the intense, mind-numbing pleasure being inflicted on her. She sighed as Naruto finished moving inside her as her walls massaged his cock.

At last Naruto slid in to the hilt inside Temari. Naruto noticed she didn't have a hymen (she is a ninja after all), and it made him happy that he wouldn't be causing her much pain. Naruto was now caught in the best conflict of his life. He desperately wanted to move, to hammer into her with abandon, but was so very reluctant to remove himself from her warm cavern, and he didn't want to hurt her. However, she began to squirm under him, moving her hips in little circles and making little gasps and ahs as she did.

Naruto groaned as she writhed under him, and finally decided to move. Temari whimpered and mumbled a no as he did, but her protests were silenced as Naruto slid himself back into her. She moaned his name again and pulled him closer.

"Naruto…faster…" she managed to say breathily. Naruto grunted approvingly and increased his pace, causing Temari to dig her fingers into his back. Naruto had a sideways thought that he would probably need an excuse for the scratches on him, but the thought was banished as he sank his cock into her glorious pussy again and again. A sheen of sweat made her body glisten as Naruto thrusted again. Temari gripped him tighter, hooking her ankles around his waist so he could thrust deeper inside her. He stretched her walls each time, and each time she clamped her most intimate muscles on his dick, reveling in the sensation with a moan or yell. She began to feel tightness in her stomach as she felt him thrust faster and with more abandon, knowing her peak was approaching. She met his thrusts with equal fervor, and soon she felt herself on the cusp of orgasm.

"Temari..." Naruto said through gritted teeth as he desperately tried to hold himself back. "I'm gonna-"

Temari crushed his lips onto hers with a passionate kiss. "Together, Naruto," she said as he thrust into her one last time, sending her into orgasm, screaming his name. she was vaguely aware that he had screamed hers as well. Stars exploded from behind her eyes as her muscles clamped onto his throbbing prick and she rode her pleasure for what seemed like an eternity. As she slowly came down from her high, Temari opened her eyes slowly, gasping as Naruto slid out of her. His arms were trembling as he supported himself over her.

Naruto, no longer adrenaline-infused, collapsed beside Temari, suddenly noticing the air in the room cooling his skin. Temari snuggled close to him, wrapping a slender but powerful arm around his chest. Naruto entwined his fingers with hers, enjoying the simplicity of the sensation. He wondered how this would all go over with everybody that he was friends with. _Heh, the rest of the guys my age already know, _he thought as he remembered the party. _I wonder what Tsunade will think. I wonder what Jiraya will think…_ he thought and mentally shuddered. _Better keep Temari away from Jiraya, for both their sakes. _Naruto wondered what would happen now that they had slept together. He was about to voice his concern when he noticed that Temari's breathing had become deep and even. He chuckled a bit. _I guess that means I did a good job._ He felt for the Kyubi's presence, but it seemed he was asleep too. Naruto smiled a bit as he too was claimed by it.

Alright guys, please, please, please, please review. Probably one(read: three) too many pleases, but I really like reviews I can't help it. Tell me how I'm doing. I will accept no flames for putting a lemon in my story, I warned you about it; HOWEVER, the lemons have no bearing on the story, and have no relation to the plot. So don't read if you want, read if you do.

Review my story or I will write the next story with horrendous OOCness! (BWAHAHAHAHAAAAA!)

Please…?

Anyway thanks for reading if you did, and I still can't see how many accursed hits I have on my story, I guess I'm not good at the whole 'internet' thing.


	9. Chapter 9 8 if you didn't read lemon

Wow it's been forever since I've written for y'all. Ready for another chapter? Well here goes! And I introduced a new character! Suggestions on what to do with him?

As Kabuto Finished pulling the latest gene sequence into a syringe, he addressed one of his latest experiments. He sat in his cage, large bulk filling the small barred cube.

"You know, you can splice genetic material all day, but until you actually place it in someone's body, you don't know how they'll react. Nothing at all could happen, or in your case, something, let's use the word 'unexpected'"

Kabuto's creation remained motionless. Kabuto smirked and approached the bars of the cage.

"Come here, my pet." Kabuto liked that there was a section of the cage that hid his form; because frankly, some of his latest transformations had been revolting.

As he approached, Kabuto noticed that his condition had worsened since his last treatment. Kimmimaro's DNA had partially calcified his joints and extended his long bones, without extending the surrounding tissue resulting in severe muscle tearing and connective tissue damage. He was hunched over now, as he was too tall for the cage he was in. His joints were wrapped in bloodstained bandages with small bone spurs poking out of them. As Kabuto's automaton, for an automaton is what he called it (he had placed a seal on him much like the caged bird seal, except Kabuto had sealed his free will completely.), shuffled forward, there was an audible creaking as his joints moved. In time, a four-foot forearm extended itself outside of the cage, gnarled, disfigured palm facing upwards. Kabuto placed the needle against his skin and injected the small amount of yellow liquid into his body. After Kabuto injected the new treatment, he sent his automaton away and silently left, promising to come back in a few hours to check on his condition again.

Shengi (totally made that name up) sat in his cage screaming within his mind, with every beat of his heart cursing Kabuto and Orochimaru. His arms screamed in pain, his legs felt like they were being torn apart and stabbing pains in his chest threatened to rip his already fragile sanity away from him. His seal prevented him from moving except under Kabuto's command. For the thousandth time, he recalled and subsequently cursed the day he joined Orochimaru. Lost and alone; his family was being the target of a bloodline purge because of his healing ability kekkei genkai. (No flashback this time) He managed to escape to a village he didn't know the name of. He would sit at the main intersection with a can and would beg. Eventually he met Orochimaru and he promised to give Shengi a better life. And at first it was. He and Orochimaru would travel together, and he would actually eat more than once a day. But there came a day when he met Kabuto and Orochimaru told him that Kabuto would be taking care of him from then on.

Then the hell began.

Kabuto took him to a cell where he got little sleep and little food, and every once in a while Kabuto would inject him with some serum, sometimes nothing happened, sometimes it burned him like fire, one time his body temperature rose above one hundred thirty degrees, but his kekkei genkai had healed him. It was the worst pain he had ever endured. His new form, however, was clumsy and large, increasing his pain every time he misjudged a distance. He had already resolved himself to the fact that he would end his own life soon, whatever it took. Shengi already knew that his Kekkei Genkai made him incredibly hard to kill, even by his own hand, but there had to be a way. His mind ventured again to the edge of insanity as he searched for a way to end his own life. The irony sickened him to no end. His healing ability was the cause of his search for oblivion, yet it kept it tantalizingly out of his grasp. His unbearable pain lessened slightly as he mused over the best ways to end himself. Lessened? Shengi didn't care as he tried to use the lack of mind-bending pain to get what passed for rest in his small, hopeless world.

Temari woke before Naruto, hesitant to leave the warm body under her. His Breathing was even, and Temari's arm moved with his chest. Growing a bit restless, she extricated herself from him without waking him. _Jeez, how is he even a shinobi?_ she thought, noticing how deep his slumber was. She removed herself from the bed gently before smiling and blushing at the things they had done last night, a series of imaginative ideas running through her mind before she could stem the thoughts. He looked so peaceful laying there, almost convincing her that he wasn't the jinchuriki of the nine-tails and one of the most powerful ninja in existence. She also smiled to herself when she thought it, considering she was the one who had so recently occupied his bed. She leaned over and lightly kissed him on a part of his forehead not covered by golden locks of hair.

Naruto's eyes opened to a sight he could only describe as absolutely heavenly. _Oh god. Oh god OH GOD! _He thought as he watched the breasts sway inches above his face. He felt a warm trickle down his cheek from his nose and resisted the maddeningly compelling urge to ravish those breasts as he had last night. Temari felt his breathing hitch and moved her face down to capture his lips. She felt the familiar yet always breathtaking rush of kissing him and reveled in it. _This man will be mine_ was the only thought in her mind as his lips pressed softly against hers. Naruto smiled, again thanking whatever gods existed for such a simple pleasure of kissing a beautiful woman. She broke the kiss and looked into his seemingly endless blue eyes and gave a sweet smile before getting off of him and walking towards the middle of the room where her clothes lay, mentally picturing the various places where she'd done unspeakable things to Naruto in this room. Needless to say she blushed a bit (read: "whole fucking lot"). Naruto groaned a bit and released himself from the covers as Temari put her clothes back on. It was then that Naruto realized that he'd seen a few sets of women's clothes in his father's, or rather his, closet.

"Temari, hold on a second, I think I've got some clothes in my closet. They were my mother's, but I think they might fit you."

Temari thought for a bit, but decided to decline. "It's okay, Naruto, I was going to go clothes shopping today, I need some clothes of my own, anyways. Is it okay if I go? I've got some errands to run as well."

Naruto grinned. "Well, I'm not stopping you." His grin turned into laughter as she threw his own shirt at him. "Would it be okay if we met at Ichiraku's for lunch?"

Finished dressing, Temari kissed Naruto again. Resisting the urge to take him then and there, she broke the kiss and walked towards the door. "Maybe, if you're extra good." Naruto laughed.

As Temari left on her errands, Naruto searched his fathers scroll collection for anything on fuinjutsu. As he began to sort the scrolls he'd collected, he wondered who could teach him. _Well, tenten is really good with seals. Oh, maybe one of the Hyuga too, they have that funny caged whatever seal, so some of them must be seal masters. _

"**Also get Tsunade and Sakura," **the fox said, intruding into his mind.

"_Why for?"_

"**As I have repeatedly said, you're an idiot, and would more than likely need the help of Tsunade's and Sakura's abilities in healing, since I'm very sure that you will do everything you can to kill yourself while learning fuinjutsu."**

"_HEY! Are you saying I'm not smart enough to learn fuinjutsu?" _

"**No, but I'm pretty sure you will hurt yourself by doing it, and you're no good to me dead, boy." **

"_Alright, alright, I'll get them. But thanks, Kyubi." _

"**Hn."**

Naruto grinned, content at his choice of people, and began to make his way to the Hokage mansion, scrolls in hand.

Temari walked down Konoha's market district, looking for some clothes. Now that she thought about it, she probably needed some ninja tools, too. Mostly, Temari relied on her fan, but she still used Kunai, shuriken, and the occasional senbon. She eventually came upon a particularly appealing clothing store, and decided to step inside, leaving her large battle fan just inside the door. She began to go through the racks, selecting some chest wraps, a few undershirts, and a few pairs of modest panties. Temari also saw a beautiful light tan kimono with blue swirling patterns on it. She picked it out, thinking that she needed something nice to wear to the village council meetings. She proceeded to check out, smiling at the woman across the counter. She was older than Temari, by maybe ten years. She smiled back at Temari, then her eyes went wide as she recognized her.

"I thought I remembered you. You were with that boy." Temari wasn't sure she liked how she said the words 'that boy'. The cashier leaned in as if gossiping to her. "You know you shouldn't keep his company."

Temari contained her growing anger at the woman and spoke. "Why do you say that? He's always been nice to me."

She grimaced. "He's just trying to gain your trust, he is. That boy, that THING killed the fourth and now masquerades as his son. Are you so naive that you think his will, no matter how strong, is stronger than that of the nine-tailed demon fox?" she laughed grimly. "I for one wouldn't let him touch me or my store with a ten foot pole."

She must have seen Temari's surprise because she scowled at her again. Temari paid quickly and left, not wanting to attract any more ire along the way. Now in a foul mood, she walked along with her bags, she watched for a ninja tools shop, eventually finding a small corner store next to a barbecue restaurant. She entered, glancing at the old man behind the counter before continuing to the back of the store where she saw bins labeled for Kunai and shuriken.  
>She put several of both in a heavy cloth bag (plastic seems impractical) and approached the counter. It was not until then that she noticed the door to the back of the shop was open. A girl sporting two large buns was sharpening a katana on a desk facing her. Temari vaguely remembered her, but couldn't quite recall from where. As she began to pay for the products, she noticed a picture of Naruto tacked onto the back wall. He was smiling, making that pose with his thumb up and ear-to-ear grin on his face. She smiled slightly and paid for her things. The old man smiled kindly and motioned behind him toward the picture.<p>

"He's a great kid, isn't he?"

Temari blinked. "Excuse me?"

"The Uzumaki boy. I noticed you smiling at the picture. He used to come here for kunai and shuriken, but I guess he's frying bigger fish now," the old man said wistfully.

Temari smiled at the old man, musing to herself. _Well, at least not everybody in this village is an idiot._ Then a thought struck her, then curiosity.

"How much of this village hates Naruto and how much loves him?"

The old man furrowed his brows together, and squinted into the space to the side of Temari. "Hmm, I know the shinobi of the leaf love him, but I don't get many non-shinobi folk in here either, though the few that have come through have either complained or at least been unnerved by it. Used to be a shinobi myself, that is until I got old. The people here don't understand what Naruto is. And when people don't understand something, they fear it. He used to come here every once in a while when a villager beat him up or he got chased away from the neighborhood. The way I hear it, it was pretty much only me and my old friend Teuchi who would take him in. he'd always have a bruise or cut somewhere when he came in. not that you would know he's been through hell, what with his unnatural healing ability and all that." He seemed to hesitate a second before continuing. "Ah, but you don't want to hear about all that, besides, if nothing up until now could break his will, I don't think anything in the future will." He smiled cheerfully, his eyes crinkling as he did.

As Temari paid for her things, he addressed her again.

"I don't believe I got your name young lady."

"I'm Temari subaku. And yours?" she hated to admit it, but the old guy was cheering her up and she smiled.

"Suzuki hando, at your service," he said, and bowed.

(A/N: I gave tenten a last name if you didn't realize it yet. I don't know if kishimoto has even given her a last name yet.)

Temari smiled at Suzuki's gesture, and took her leave, thinking to try on her kimono before heading to Ichiraku's.

Naruto entered the Tsunade's office without knocking, as usual, and was greeted by Tsunade.

"I suppose you're here about learning fuinjutsu?"

Naruto smiled. "Yep! I'm gonna learn all I can. I also brought all the scrolls on sealing from my father's library with me, too," he said, dumping the armful onto Tsunade's already cluttered desk.

Tsunade sighed as she looked at the various scrolls sitting in front of her. _This kid's gonna be the death of me, _she thought as she spoke.

"Alright, Naruto, give me about an hour to finish up and get a clone doing some work, and I'll let Shizune know I'll be out for a while. Meet me at training ground 45 in about an hour and a half, okay?

"Okay, granny Tsunade," he smiled hugely again. "I'm gonna leave the scrolls with you, maybe you can help me begin learning what's in the scrolls since you're a seal master and everything.

Tsunade smiled at his willingness to trust her. "Naruto, these scrolls aren't just sealing techniques, they're your clan secrets. You shouldn't let them outside of your clan, even for a moment, even if it's me."

Naruto stared, puzzled. Wasn't she family anyways? "It's okay, Tsunade, I think you're part of my family anyways!"

Tsunade chuckled, impressed by Naruto's confidence. "Okay, Naruto, I'll keep these here and look over them for beginner stuff, you go get ready to train."

"Cool, granny! That'll give me time to have lunch with Temari at Ichiraku's!" Naruto said excitedly and rushed out the door.

_Temari at Ichiraku's? _Tsunade began to chuckle, and then laugh loudly as she thought of Naruto and Temari together.

Naruto approached Ichiraku's and sat down on one of the stools there. Teuchi turned to him and greeted him with a warm smile.

"Here again, Naruto? What'll ya have?"

Naruto smiled back at the old man. "Nothing yet, old man, I'm waiting on somebody."

Teuchi decided to poke a bit of fun. "Oh really, Naruto, is it a girl?" Naruto started and Teuchi chuckled. "How pretty is she? Bet she's a real looker, eh?"

"Hey! I'll have you know that she's really pretty!" Naruto almost yelled, causing Ayame to turn her head to the two. Naruto blushed and clapped a hand over his mouth. _Yeah, Naruto, open that mouth again and see what happens, great._ He didn't notice the gloved fist directed toward him, and suddenly felt a crashing pain in his face.

"NARUTOOOOO!" yelled Sakura as her punch knocked him a good ten meters away, in a cloud of dust.

_Well, looks like Sakura is glad to see me, _Naruto thought groggily as he regained his senses just in time to have her grab him and jerk him upwards and scream.

"Why the HELL didn't you tell me that Sasuke was here!" she screamed as she shook him. Naruto opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. "He was right here and you didn't tell me? And you let him go? Why didn't you make him stay, Naruto? Why did-" Sakura was cut off by Naruto's hand on her mouth.

"Sakura, shut up and listen to me!" he yelled, getting her attention. "First of all, I told him to go to you in the first place! Second of all, I'm working on getting him back to the village, I have to learn fuinjutsu to do it first though," Naruto shoved her off of him, causing her to stumble and fall. She got up quickly, and stared at him for a bit, more angry that he'd yelled at her than that he'd pushed her. "I'm doing my best to get Sasuke back and what thanks do I get? I get blamed, and I get hit in the face."

Sakura looked away, refusing to meet his eyes. She couldn't bring herself to look into those piercing blue eyes. She knew he was right, she shouldn't have hit him, but she was angry, and Naruto had always borne the weight of her anger.

"Please bring him back this time, Naruto," she said, turning away and running off, trying to find somewhere she could be alone. Naruto slowly walked back to his favorite ramen stand with a swollen cheek.

"She jealous or something?" Teuchi asked, pointing a ladle at the rapidly disappearing Sakura and then at Naruto's rapidly swelling cheek. Naruto looked at him, puzzled. " Well, you said you were meeting a pretty girl here and all of a sudden she punches you in the face, seems like jealousy to me."

Naruto finally realized what he was talking about. "Nah, it's not that, it's complicated."

"well, Naruto, you know what they say, the man who doesn't speak gets terrible advice. Eh, but we can talk about it later, I think I see somebody with their eye on you," Teuchi said with a broad smile, Naruto didn't smile back.

Temari walked up to Ichiraku's Ramen stand and noticed the bright orange of Naruto's outfit sitting on one of the stools. She smiled and sat next to him, but then noticed his sad eyes and swollen cheek. "What happened, Naruto?"

"It's nothing, Temari," he said.

"come on, Naruto, I can tell something's wrong," Temari said, reaching out to touch his injured cheek, but he pulled away. _What the hell?_ Temari thought as he did. She resisted the urge to slap him, _it looks like he's had enough of that._ "Fine. If you don't want to talk to me, then don't. I'm worried about you and what thanks do I get? I get the cold shoulder from you of all people, Naruto." She turned to Teuchi. "Sorry, but I'm going to find somewhere else to eat, they say the company makes the meal anyways," she said and walked away.

Teuchi sighed. _This kid, why's he so hard on himself, it doesn't just hurt him, it hurts the people around him sometimes too. Ah, but thinking about it isn't doing me any good now._ "Naruto, I know you feel like you aren't getting anywhere right now, but you haven't broken your nindo yet, some tasks just take longer than others. You haven't failed, you've just been delayed. Although I do suggest you apologize to your lady friend for being so rude to her." Naruto gave an almost imperceptible nod, still having a staring contest with the counter in front of him; but it was enough for Teuchi, who knew Naruto better than most. He put his hand on Naruto's head, ruffling his hair. It was something he did every once in a while, and even though he was grown, Naruto had never stopped him. "Now, as I recall, you were hungry. What'll it be?"

Naruto looked up at Teuchi, eyes still mostly sad, but Teuchi knew that would change soon enough. "Two miso ramen and one beef please. And thanks, old man."

Review? Please with cherries on top?


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto looked down at his empty ramen bowl, considering eating another. _Well, I probably could, but then I'd be late for my meeting with Tsunade. _He dropped the chopsticks with a _clack_ and paid for his meal, thanking Teuchi for his advice and talking with Ayame a bit. As he made his way to the training grounds, he wondered what would happen with his fuinjutsu training. _I wonder if I'll ever be as good as the old pervy sage? _

"**Well, **_**I**_** wonder if you'll ever be as good as your old man." **

"_What do you mean by that, Kyuubi?" _

"**Great. I knew you were ignorant, kid, but this is starting to get ridiculous. The easiest way to put it is that your father was a fuinjutsu master. Like put the Uzumaki's to shame kind of master." **

"_What do you mean, put the Uzumaki's to shame?"_

"**Dammit, kid, if you were any stupider you'd have to look in a mirror to see if your eyes were open! Do you know nothing of your mother's clan?"**

"_HEY! I'm not dumb! It's just that nobody tells me anything! I can't help it if nobody ever told me my family history." _

"**well, I might tell you, if we have the time." **

"_we've got a good ten minutes of walking to do before I reach the training ground, so speak." _

The fox hmphed, which is a strange expression to be hearing inside your own head. **"well, as you probably know, your mother was Kushina Uzumaki, obviously of the Uzumaki clan. Now the Uzumaki clan was very famous in a village called ****Uzushiogakure****, the village hidden in the whirlpools. The Uzumaki's were famously good at the sealing arts, so much so in fact that the other hidden villages began to fear them. This fear escalated when ****Uzushiogakure**** obtained one of the tailed beasts, me. I was then sealed into a woman of the Uzumaki clan. This gave the clan even more power, and caused the other hidden villages to act on their fear. They banded together and crushed ****Uzushiogakure****, but not without great cost. As I understand it, only three Uzumakis got out of the village alive. One of them was your mother, Kushina Uzumaki, who was also my jinchuriki before you. The other two I do not know. One was a baby, transported by seal by his parents somewhere far away. The other I do not know anything about. **(ain't foreshadowing neat?)** Kushina took all she could find on fuinjutsu when she fled, planning to learn the art herself, though she never showed much talent for it, at least not as much talent as she had for the sword. She fled to Konoha, where she enrolled at the academy and subsequently fell in love with Minato, your father, and after they were together for a while, she gave him the scrolls on fuinjutsu. Minato took the scrolls and began to learn. He learned so much more than anyone thought he could, until he was grafting new seals for all kinds of things. He was a master in his own right, even more than Jiraya and Tsunade of the Sannin. He was the one who wrote Jiraya's toad summoning seal." **

Naruto stopped. "_Wait, that means that-"_

"**yeah, kid, your dad made the seal that you carry on your back." **

Naruto reached around and touched the edge of the seal, as if feeling it for the first time. _Well ain't that the damndest thing._

"**I suppose I'll tell you the rest later, kid, looks like Tsunade is kinda pissed at you" **

Naruto looked around, startled. "wait, wha-"

"NARUTO UZUMAKI! YOU ARE TEN MINUTES LATE!" Tsunade yelled, using her immense strength to hurl a boulder at Naruto, who dodged just in time.

Granny Tsunade, YOU COULDA KILLED ME WITH THAT THING!" he yelled back, gesticulating at the crater that the boulder had made.

"Well, I went easy on you, next time you're late, I won't give you the time to dodge." Tsunade said with a sincere smile and sweet voice. Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but as he did, she interrupted him by slamming a piece of paper on his chest. It had a few strange symbols on it. Naruto was about to ask why, but suddenly realized that no sound came from his mouth.

"Guess you noticed that you can't talk, eh? That's a voice suppression seal. It's used on prisoners in battle so they don't make noise and alert the enemy of the captors' position. It won't come off for five minutes, though I can make it longer if you prove to be, let's say, less than pleasant."

Naruto gulped and nodded, not wanting to be without his voice for any longer than absolutely necessary.

Tsunade continued. "Good, now that we know the rules, let's have a little quiz. You did take the basic writing course at the ninja academy, right?" Naruto nodded. _Sheesh, it was a required course, too! And so boring, ugh, how many times do I need to 'swoop' the brush? People can still understand me. _"Though I suppose you didn't take the intermediate or advanced forms of the same class?" Naruto shook his head. "Figured as much. The first thing you need to know about Fuinjutsu you've got to have good writing skills." Naruto tried his best to groan, but the seal was still in place. "Naruto, look at the seal on your chest." Naruto bent his neck and saw five kanji on it, three in a line, one standing alone, and one connected to a border around the paper. However, he only recognized two of the kanji, the one on the end of the three in a line, and the one connected to the border. It was the kanji for 'bind'. Tsunade spoke again pointing to the kanji standing alone. "it is essential to understand the flow of chakra through the seal as well. Look here, Naruto. The kanji here represents the chakra storage of the seal. I input a certain amount of chakra to supply the seal with power, much like batteries in an electronic device. This is a kanji used almost explicitly by fuinjutsu users, because it is a mixture of the kanji for 'supply' and 'storage', but we'll get to that later. The next kanji we'll look at is one I think you may know, if you attended that class at all. The kanji for 'bind'. There are several types of seals like this, and they all start with a task. A task such as binding something. And if you'll look to the next kanji, it is the kanji for 'voice'. They follow in sequence. And if we look at the third kanji, it is the kanji for 'time'. Depending on how much chakra I add or remove from this kanji, I can control how much time you spend not being able to speak, like so." Tsunade added some chakra to her finger, and touched the spot where the time kanji was. It grew larger, but not by much. "there. I can easily add or remove from the time that the seal is active." Tsunade noticed Naruto's pleading expression, and decided to take the time back. "all right, Naruto, I'll take the extra time off. Next though, let's look at this border. See how it touches the kanji on the bottom? This kanji is for bind as well, but not in the same sense. It depends on how you input the chakra, which we will talk about later. The purpose of this border is to keep you from taking it off yourself, which I see you've already tried. This kanji is linked to the three kanji above it that make up the main seal, so that as long as the main seal is active, the seal will remain on your chest. Speaking of, the time limit should be up about now." Naruto watched, and just as she said, The seal deactivated, the time kanji becoming smaller and smaller until it disappeared, and as soon as it did that, the kanji connected to the border vanished along with the border, and it fell from his chest. Naruto experimentally cleared his throat to test that the seal's effects were actually gone. Satisfied with the grunt that came from his chest, he spoke, albeit a bit excitedly.

"WOW GRANNY TSUNADE HOW DID YOU DO THAT CAN YOU REALLY TEACH ME TO DO STUFF LIKE THAT THAT'S AWESOME I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT JUST LIKE YOU THAT'S AMAZI-"

Tsunade punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. "I can do that because I know how. And knowledge of kanji can only be gained through practice." Naruto had just gotten up when he noticed that Tsunade had two large scrolls in her hands. "This scroll," she said holding the one on the right, "Is full of kanji for you to learn for the basics of fuinjutsu." She then held up the left. "THIS scroll, however, is empty. I want you to fill it with every kanji in the other scroll, flawlessly. You have paper at your estate, so you can practice. Tomorrow, we will work on chakra control exercises, so come prepared. That's the only lesson for today, I'll see you tomorrow, same time, same place." that said, Tsunade flickered away, presumably towards the nearest source of sake. Naruto looked disdainfully at the scrolls that Tsunade had given him, but only an instant later he realized that this was the path to bring sasuke home, and that gave him hope and determination.

Temari sat inside Naruto's estate, sipping tea at the western-style table in his kitchen. Temari was ambiguous about Naruto's behavior today, or rather his behavior at Ichiraku's. while he shouldn't have acted the way he did, and she was within her rights to be upset at him, she could hardly blame him for being angry. Contrary to what Naruto knew, she had seen Sakura screaming at him from a while off. She didn't hear everything, but she seemed distraught, and some of that surely had rubbed off on to Naruto. Temari really liked Naruto._ I think I could say I love him, that I feel a strong connection to him that no one else has. I understand that I love him for who he is, but shouldn't I want him to be better than the person he is? _As she thought this, she heard the door to the estate's latch open and close, and Naruto walked into the kitchen, two scrolls in hand. Naruto looked at her, and gave a slight smile before setting the scrolls down and pouring some tea for himself. He sat next to Temari and sipped his tea for a while, thinking about how to go about talking to her.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation, yes?" Naruto said, a bit wearily.

"and an apology."

Naruto sighed again, he hated talking about sensitive subjects like this, even more he hated apologizing, but he did owe it to her. "and an apology, I suppose"

Thank you for reading, this chapter was a bitch to write for some reason. Please review? I'm not just writing for reviews, but they help. Well, mostly reviews.

OKAY, I'M WRITING THIS STORY FOR REVIEWS OKAY? NOW JUST REVIEW THE CHAPTER AND WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE, OKAY?


	11. Chapter 11-a

Alright guys, I'm really sorry for taking so long, but I'm a chemical engineering major, it's not that easy to get time to write nowadays. Anyway, I noticed, in my reading up on the Naruto fanfictionverse(coined term), that there was very little structure to fuinjutsu. I have decided to give it structure. No longer will you not know where something goes after it's sealed in a scroll, no longer will you wonder how the hirashin jutsu works. Granted, it will take a while for me to actually get all the structure on paper and worked out, but it'll get worked out, dammit. It's just too annoying to me not knowing that stuff. And ladies, please notice that the description says AU, so I have license to do whatever the hell I want, so don't talk to me about timeline or canon. I'm just makin' this shit up as I go along. Happy trails, gentlemen, and please review with suggestions.

_**Where we left off**_

Temari sat inside Naruto's estate, sipping tea at the western-style table in his kitchen. Temari was ambiguous about Naruto's behavior today, or rather his behavior at Ichiraku's. While he shouldn't have acted the way he did, and she was within her rights to be upset at him, she could hardly blame him for being angry. Contrary to what Naruto knew, she had seen Sakura screaming at him from a while off. She didn't hear everything, but she seemed distraught, and some of that surely had rubbed off on to Naruto. Temari really liked Naruto._I think I could say I love him, that I feel a strong connection to him that no one else has. I understand that I love him for who he is, but shouldn't I want him to be better than the person he is?_As she thought this, she heard the door to the estate's latch open and close, and Naruto walked into the kitchen, two scrolls in hand. Naruto looked at her, and gave a slight smile before setting the scrolls down and pouring some tea for himself. He sat next to Temari and sipped his tea for a while, thinking about how to go about talking to her.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation, yes?" Naruto said, a bit wearily.

"And an apology," Temari said.

Naruto sighed again, he hated talking about sensitive subjects like this, even more he hated apologizing, but he did owe it to her. "And an apology, I suppose"

_**Where we begin**_

Temari spoke first. "So why was Sakura screaming at you?"

Naruto thought about all the reasons Sasuke wouldn't have gone back to see Sakura before he left. He wondered why he wouldn't have. "Remember when Sasuke came into my room?"

"Yes…." Temari said, trailing the word off into more of a question than anything. She remembered Sasuke being there, and how Naruto had stopped her from killing him.

"If you remember, I told him to go by Sakura's place for his leg. He didn't go, he just left the village, and after our meeting with Tsunade to discuss it, She was angry. Sakura cares for Sasuke just as much as I do, and she was upset that I hadn't told her sooner or brought him to her. She felt betrayed, and I suppose I should have told her first; I think that if I give her time she'll understand."

"Hmm, and you were angry at her?"

"I guess I was in a way, but I was more angry with myself, I felt like I had failed her, the way she acted and all. And I was kind of an ass to you, too, sorry," Naruto said, scratching the back of his neck.

Temari knew he meant it, she just wished he didn't have to say it. "I forgive you, Naruto. Now what are those scrolls for?"

Naruto grabbed the first one and opened it. It was full of kanji, most of them familiar to Temari, since she had a little experience drawing storage seals and the like. "you're learning Fuinjutsu?" Temari asked, knowing how difficult of a task it was.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna be the best Fuinjutsu master ever!" Naruto exclaimed, the typical look of determination on his face. "I'm gonna even surpass my father!"

Temari smiled inwardly. It was hard to stop Naruto when he had that look about him. "Do you even know what most of these kanji are for?"

Naruto hesitated. "Well, no, but that's beside the point. I'll learn them one way or another." He took out the blank scroll and set about finding something to write with. Temari was left to wonder about Naruto. _How in the hell is he gonna learn fuinjutsu? I mean, he's smart, but fuinjutsu is an immensely complicated style of techniques. _The little fox he'd been keeping around jumped on her lap and curled up in it, nuzzling her free hand. Naruto soon returned to find the fox he had adopted was on Temari's lap, and she was petting it. He smiled. "Looks like he likes you," he said, kissing the top of her head. He sat down and took out his brush (or whatever they write kanji with), and began copying the first set of kanji, which were the basics; storage, transference and the like.

Temari soon finished her tea, and tapped Naruto on the shoulder. "I'm gonna turn in, it's getting a bit late." As she said it, Naruto noticed that it was already dark.

He smiled. "I'm getting a bit tired too. I'll come in when I finish this section, okay?" she nodded and ruffled his hair. She was walking away behind him, but Naruto couldn't resist turning around and admiring her. As soon as she finished walking out of the room, the little fox curled up in Naruto's lap. He quickly fell in to a rhythm as he transcribed the symbols and their definitions. As he was finishing the section, though, he felt a strange presence around him; thanks to his 'prisoner' he had enhanced senses. He recognized it as he concentrated and it came closer though, and as he did, Kakashi appeared before him, wearing a dog ANBU mask. Any time he wore that There was trouble.

"Kakashi, is something wrong?" He asked.

"Yeah, Naruto, on the outskirts of Konoha. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but there's an unusually prowerful missing nin, and he wants to talk to you. He hasn't taken any action against Konoha yet, but he said he would if he didn't get to talk to you; so I'm gonna need you to come with me. And Naruto, they told me not to tell you until we got there, but he's got Sasuke, and it's not good."

Naruto was enraged. He was so close to bringing Sasuke home. "How quickly can you get me there," he said while making a quick clone to tell Temari what was going on.

"Not soon enough. Let's go, you ready?"

Naruto grabbed a kunai pouch that was on the counter and tied it on his leg. "Yeah, Kakashi, lead the way."

sorry that it's so chort, guys, this'll be a two part chapter, guys, but I just really need to put something on the site, hopefully I'll have the next part of this chapter up in the next couple days. Please review again, suggest ideas.


	12. Chapter 11-b

ALRIGHT LADIES, NEW CHAPTER!

"How quickly can you get me there?"

"Not soon enough, let's go."

"He ran off without me!?" screamed Temari at a very afraid clone of Naruto.

Naruto's clone backed up, holding his hands in front of him. "Don't worry, the boss has got it under control, everything will be fi-" *poof* the clone said until Temari punched it in the face.

"Under control my ass!" Temari exclaimed as she grabbed her fan on the way out of the house.

Naruto had just gotten the memories from his clone, and immediately felt a little more afraid of Temari than this missing Nin they were heading towards.

"Slow down, Naruto, we're here." Kakashi said.

"Really? We're only a half-mile from the village! If he wanted to talk to me so bad he could have just knocked on my door, if he's that close."

"Naruto, this isn't something to joke about. None of us could prevent him from getting here."

"Well, do we know anything about him?"

Shengi stood in the dark on the road to Konoha, with an unconscious Sasuke lying in front of him. He didn't want to hurt anybody anymore, but janitor said that it would be easier if he had Sasuke with him, and since he was bound to Kabuto's will, he couldn't disobey no matter how he had wanted to; Although he had loosed Shengi's tongue, if nothing else than to state his intentions. But he did forbid him from speaking of the seal or of Kabuto. He noticed someone, well two someones approaching quite rapidly. Kabuto's gene enhancements allowed him to see in the dark, control his bone growth much like Kimmimaro, increased his speed and made him nearly indestructible, _and god knows what else_, he thought as a third figure appeared beside the other two.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Naruto and Kakashi stood a hundred meters from the missing nin.

"Team Gai, report," Kakashi whispered into the night. A shadow fell from a tree next to him.

Gai spoke. "He's very dangerous, very fast. My team has eyes on him right now. Neji also says that there's something strange about his chakra network, he says, I quote, 'it's like there's a dozen people inside him, all with different chakra types'. I advise extreme caution, especially since he's with Sasuke."

Kakashi sighed. _And I had to leave my bed for this_. Well, considering what was in his bed, he wouldn't be sleeping anyways.

"Has anyone tried talking to him?" Naruto asked.

"That's why we brought you here, naruto, when he got here; he screamed something about wanting to talk to you. Other than that, nothing," Kakashi said, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Be careful, naruto."

"Don't worry Kakashi, I can handle this guy," naruto said as he started to run in the direction of Sasuke and the missing Nin.

Not long after he ran off, Temari arrived and stopped next to Kakashi. "Where's Naruto?"

Kakashi was surprised. _What's she doing here? Ahh, that must have been why he made that shadow clone. But why did he send it to her? And how'd she get here so fast? _Suddenly he realized that she had to have been in his house at the time, and also realized that the clone had been heading to his bedroom, and given the hour, what she was probably doing. _Well, shit, never thought that'd happen. Probably gonna have to get him some condoms or one of those anti-pregnancy jutsu scrolls,_ he thought, remembering how he'd joked with him about 'christening' the house.He turned his attention back to Temari, who looked like she was about to head off in his direction. "Wait, Temari, Naruto can handle this, and I don't think any of us will be able to help him anyways."

Temari just about slapped him at that moment. "What? Why not?" she yelled, louder than she intended.

"I'm saying that you just can't, you'd be more of a hindrance than a help right now," Kakashi said, becoming a bit upset at all that had happened that night.

"More of a hindrance? What, am I not powerful enough or something? I can help him if I want!" she screamed, and began to run towards Naruto when Neji appeared in front of her.

"None of us are, Temari." Neji said, meeting her eyes with his. "Naruto's on an entirely different level than all of us, save a few. You've seen it yourself; when Naruto fights, it's best to get out of the way."

Temari stopped. She knew she couldn't really help him, but dammit, it didn't stop her from wanting to go help him. She looked down. "Then what am I supposed to do?" she asked, clenching her fists. "Am I just supposed to stand here and watch him get hurt, killed even?" she felt a pang in her stomach as she voiced her concern.

She heard Kakashi's footsteps behind her, and felt his hand on her shoulder. "The best any of us can do is be there for him when he's not like this. Be there for him when he gets out of this."

"Who are you and why do you have Sasuke?" Naruto asked the shadowy figure twenty yards in front of him. The person was easily seven feet tall.

"I took him because it seemed to be the easiest way to get you to come with me; my name is Shengi, and I'm here to bring you to Kabuto, willingly or unwillingly, dead or alive."

Naruto snorted. "Ha! I'm not going anywhere with you, and Sasuke's coming with me."

"I don't want to hurt anyone else. Please, please don't make me hurt people," Shengi said, honestly not wanting anyone else to be hurt. It was almost too much to bear, seeing his hands beat the unconscious kid before him, and he didn't want that to happen to this one either.

Naruto pointed a finger at Shengi. "I told you, I'm not going anywhere."

"**Be careful, Naruto, he's very powerful, probably enhanced by Kabuto."**

Shengi felt his arm move unbidden towards Sasuke, and lift him with one powerful arm that scarcely felt like it was his own anymore. "I hope you can stop me then, Naruto," he said as his other arm prepared to strike an unconscious Sasuke in the face. His hand glowed blue with Chakra and bone grew out of his hand until it looked like a spiked glove (like UFC gloves except made of bone). Shengi looked at his own hand as if it had betrayed him, which in a way it had. The attack he was about to unleash had been stolen by Orochimaru from the Hyuuga, modifying it to make it more powerful, but with the drawback of only being able to emit chakra out of the tenketsu on his hands through the bony plates that covered it. On all the missions Kabuto had sent him on before, no one had survived being struck by it. But before he had a chance to strike, a kick from behind knocked him to the ground, and the Naruto in front of him exploded into a cloud of smoke. Another Naruto ran to Sasuke's body and picked it up, running back the way he had came.

As Shengi got up from his kick, he saw three Naruto's standing in front of him.

"You may be big, but I can still knock you down," Naruto said, crouching into a battle-ready stance.

Shengi felt his skin itch, and knew what was coming next. He felt bony plates begin to rise above his skin, until it covered him almost like a suit of armor. "Naruto, please," he begged, one last time; "I'm being forced to do this, I don't want to hurt you." The three Naruto's in front of him exploded into smoke, and a figure dropped from the tree in front of him and stepped into the moonlight. It was Naruto, _the real one I suppose,_ Shengi thought, although his eyes seemed to have orange make-up on them.

"Don't hurt my friends." He said flatly before rushing Shengi.

Naruto ran toward Shengi and punched, putting all of his frog kata training to use. Shengi blocked and countered with a side kick, which Naruto ducked under, only to be kicked with his other leg following lower than the first. Naruto brought up a forearm to block but was too late. He was sent flying into a tree. Quickly recovering, Naruto attacked again, and while landing a few shots on Shengi's body, they hardly slowed him down, with being covered in that bony armor. As they fought fiercely, Naruto even tried his rasengan a couple of times, with little effect. After a few minutes Naruto had gotten used to his fighting style, which was easy to predict, and was able to dodge most of Shengi's attacks, and made sure to get away from all of that strange glowing one-fisted attack. One rasengan did crack the bone plate on Shengi's chest, almost destroying his shirt; but the crack disappeared almost as soon as it had formed. As they continued fighting, Naruto heard his demon resident talk to him.

"**Naruto, I need to tell you something." **

"_Are you serious, Kyuubi?! I'm kinda4 busy at the moment, in case you haven't noticed!"_

"**I know, kid, but look at his chest, see those markings? It looks like a seal." **

"_Look, I'm too busy trying to beat his ass to notice some stupi-"_

Naruto didn't finish the thought as Shengi caught him with another kick, sending him flying ten feet back. Naruto was slow in getting up this time, his head spinning. "Why do you want me?" he asked, standing up.

Shengi spoke, the only thing he could do while Kabuto's seal made him fight, though he would need rest soon, _boy this kid has some stamina_. "I don't want you, Kabuto does. If it was up to me, I wouldn't hurt anybody; it's not like I want to!" he exclaimed, "It's this stupid s—" Shengi couldn't finish the word, the seal wouldn't let him.

Naruto settled into another stance, making two clones, ready to use his rasenshuriken if he had to.

"**Naruto, Don't! Look at his chest, do you see the seal there?" **

Naruto finally took the time to look at his seal. It was a large, eight-point seal that covered the area where his heart was, imprinted on the bone that covered his chest.

"_So what? Its probably like Orochimaru's cursed whatever seal anyways, why do I care?" _

"**I recognize that seal, Naruto, it's one of the forbidden jutsu of the Uzumaki clan. Your mother was one of the few who knew of its existence, much less how to use it." **

"_So what does it do?" _

"**That's why I wanted you to stop, kid. Basically what it does is remove the free will from a person. The seal is directing his actions, though to what extend I don't know. He's being directed against his will by Kabuto." **

"_So? This information does no good to me, he's still gonna attack me."_

"**Okay, kid, stay with me here, I'm gonna get ahead of Tsunade's lesson plan. You never use demonic chakra in sealing jutsu. It's basically useless. If you put demonic chakra into a seal, the chakra in the seal reacts violently with the demonic chakra. In short, we need to destroy that seal. I need you to use a lot of my chakra on this; so don't go dying on me or anything. You need to dispel the seal, much like you dispel a genjutsu, except it requires a whole lot more chakra." **

"_Okay, that's it?" _

"**That's it, just don't let him hit you." **

"_Ahh, Kyuubi, that's easy, what do you think I've been doing this whole time." _

With that, the fox receded form his mind. Naruto spoke. "That seal on your chest! What does it do?"

Shengi felt a little hope, but was reluctant to let it take hold. Kabuto had forbidden him from speaking of the seal, but he had not been specific enough when he told him not to. "It binds me to Kabuto's will, I am forced to do what he commands. My body moves without me telling it to, my abilities activate without me wanting to. People have been killed by me because of it," Shengi said, feeling the hopelessness of his situation overcome him again.

Naruto felt his hand grow hot as he tried his hardest with the foxes help to direct demonic chakra to it. His fingernails on that hand grew, and slowly turned into claws. "I won't let you hurt anyone again!" Naruto rushed forward, toward the seal.

Shengi felt his hand also grow hot, and saw the blue glow on his bony fist as his muscles tensed in preparation for Naruto's assault.

Naruto reached him, stretched out, about to put his right hand on the seal when he noticed Shengi's fist coming up to his ribs. He knew he couldn't dodge, but at least he could finish the seal. He felt his palm touch the seal just as Shengi's fist connected with his side.

"KAI!" an explosion rocked the forest

Naruto saw a flash of light from the seal before he was knocked unconscious.

"Naruto!" Temari yelled.

Temari, who had been watching from a distance with Kakashi and team Gai, rushed to where Naruto had landed, and turned him over. Kakashi and Gai rushed forwards and put themselves between Naruto and Shengi in a defensive stance. Tenten soon joined Temari, as did Neji, while Lee joined Kakashi.

Tenten grabbed Temari and pulled her off of Naruto; she still tried to get to him.

Neji turned his Byakugan on, to examine Naruto. What he saw wasn't good. He'd broken at least five ribs, which had in turn collapsed his lung. He was bleeding internally, and he'd fractured a couple of vertebrae. The damage was extensive, and if he didn't get to a medic soon, it wouldn't be good.

"Let go of me!" Temari screamed, trying to kick at Tenten.

"Tenten, stop! You're not going to help him by getting in Neji's way!" she said, pulling her back again, but slipped, letting Temari break free. She rushed to Naruto's side and pulled his head into her lap. Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Temari. He smiled weakly, then coughed. Blood came up when he did. Temari felt so helpless, watching Naruto be hurt. He began to speak, but couldn't and coughed again, with more blood.

"It's okay, Naruto," Temari said, rubbing his cheek, telling him more to comfort her than him. "You can use that funny jutsu because of the Kyuubi right? You can fix yourself right?" she asked, tears forming at the edges of her eyes.

Naruto spoke slowly, every word an effort. The pain in his side was almost unbearable, it hurt so much to even breathe. "Can't. . . I need too much. . . demonic chakra. *cough* I'll be. . . alright, Temari, don't worry. . . Desert blossom. . . Don't hurt him, it wasn't his . . . Fault"

"He's delirious. LEE!" He yelled, and lee instantly appeared. "Drop the weights, lee, we need you to get to Tsunade as fast as you can."

"I will return with lady Tsunade, do not worry naruto, you will be okay!" Lee said as he ran off at a near impossible pace toward Konoha. 

Naruto sat in front of the cage where Kyuubi was, wondering what was going on.

"Hey Kyuubi, am I gonna die?" Naruto knew that things were bad, he'd taken that attack full on, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now, he'd been knocked unconscious.

"I don't think so, even though you used fuckton of my chakra, and I can't heal you well now, you're near Konoha and you've got allies with you." He gave a pause "Though you are an idiot, that was an exceptionally noble thing you did."

Naruto looked past him into the darkness behind Kyuubi. "I don't think anyone should be controlled like that, especially not by Kabuto."

The fox walked up to the cage door and sat down. It looked away from naruto, at some spot to his side. "Naruto, I'm not used to saying things like this, but. . . I'm sorry."

Naruto looked puzzled. "What are you talking about, you've saved my life several times, what do you have to be sorry for?"

"Dammit naruto don't make me say it, I'm sorry for being the reason you were beaten, I'm sorry that I taunted you and wanted you to kill."

Naruto closed his eyes and lay back on the bench that was there. "Don't worry about it, Kyuubi, I'm stronger because of it, right?"

The fox lay down; one large eye pointed his direction. "Yeah, just make sure you don't die, or I'll kill you myself." 

Naruto chuckled.

Tsunade stood by Naruto's bed, and watched him sleep. Temari was lying in the small couch next to him, curled up and sleeping as well. It had taken nearly four hours to stabilize him and stop the internal bleeding; since then he'd been assigned a room and Tsunade had a nurse come in and check on him hourly and change his bandages. He'd now been here one day, and Temari had been by his side the whole time, only leaving when necessary. _Come to think of it, she hasn't eaten in a while either_. She went to Temari and gently shook her awake.

"Huh? Is he awake?" Temari said, looking towards naruto, but upon seeing he wasn't awake, her eyes went sad.

"No, not yet, but you need to eat something, come on." Tsunade said, waving her towards the door, leading her towards the cafeteria.

please review, blah blah blah, all that stuff, suggest things and please please review.


	13. Chapter 12

All right guys, new chapter! I feel like I could have done better with this one, but y'all will be the judge of that, I guess.

"So, tell me all about you and this one," Tsunade said, leaning back in one of the chairs in Naruto's room; he was still out, Tsunade had gotten the hint from him being up and about before he should have been, and this time, had put him into an induced coma for the time being.

Temari thought for a second. How would she describe how she and Naruto had gotten together? _Well, _she thought_, we first met at the Chuunin exam, and he'd always been a troublemaker and a loudmouth, but I suppose I didn't really know him until a few weeks ago. I guess I admire the person he is, despite the surroundings that he has. He's always trusting and loyal, hopeful and kind, even though living in the ninja world is hard on everyone. It brings out the worst in people, and here Naruto was, staunchly defying that stereotype and giving hope. _Temari's thoughts trailed off as she thought more of Naruto.

"Temari?" Tsunade interrupted.

"I'm sorry, what?" Temari asked, remembering Tsunade's question just after she spoke. "I think that I like him because he always tries his hardest to be happy, despite the upbringing he's had, and that he doesn't let being a ninja turn him into a monster, like my brother did, but even then, Naruto basically saved my brother's life. He can be sad at times, but only about the people he cares about, sometimes even when they don't care about him."

Tsunade was silent for a few seconds. "Well, I suppose that's as good a reason as any to love someone."

Temari was a bit surprised, in that she'd never thought of the feelings she had for Naruto as love. Sure, he was a great guy, and she definitely had feelings for him, but love? Love was something else altogether. _I _could_ love him, but right now I don't know if I can call it that._ She looked at Temari. _But I could_. "Yeah, I guess it is."

Shengi sat in a small, windowless cell, with no doors, and only a small light to illuminate the five-meter square room he was placed in after his and Naruto's fight. They said he would be tried for crimes against Konoha. Sure, he could break out of it, what with his impressive arsenal of jutsu and genetic enhancements given him by the snake bastard; but he cared not anymore. There would always be someone more powerful waiting to make him his pawn, such was the way of the world, he thought. _Let them do what they will, if I am to be a tool, then so be it._ Naruto had given him hope, and then so abruptly was it taken away, though he still felt grateful to Naruto for destroying his seal. He felt the patch of skin on his chest, now faintly scarred through his bony armor. He also wondered where the Uchiha was. Kabuto's orders had been to kill Sasuke in front of Naruto, then, as Naruto flew into a rage, to capture him. Shengi knew it was wrong, protested it all the way, but that had not gotten him far. Naruto had given him hope, but then his village would undoubtedly either kill him or turn him to its own purposes. _If I die, I die, it's whatever. _

Sasuke was breathing shallowly as he tried his best to heal his broken rib. _That fool with Kabuto's seal took me by surprise, I need to start setting better traps when I camp, if I ever get out of this cell, that is. _He'd already tried to escape, but there were incredibly powerful seals on the walls, he couldn't even scratch the stone walls with his chidori claws (1, see bottom of document). He looked up at the faint light that illuminated his cell, his anger tainted with melancholy. _I really thought Naruto would take me back, guess not. Well, a man can dream, can't he?_

"You're shitting me." Naruto said flatly, not believing what Tsunade said about Shengi being tried for crimes against Konoha next week.

"No, I wish I was, but no, Naruto. I think I can stall the council for a few days after that, but they've outvoted the clan heads unanimously, and even then, some of them are in favor of it. Danzo's gonna make a play on him too, see if he can't use the boy and turn him into a weapon of some sort; it's gonna get really tough in the council room for a while now. Though there is a bit of good news. I played the council into letting Sasuke not get executed on the spot. If you can manage to seal his chakra away from him within a month, they won't kill him, at least not immediately." She breathed a sigh and produced a small sake flask from somewhere on her person, and took a sip. "There's also a council meeting today, still going over what happened with you three; I don't think you're in any shape to go anywhere, so I told them-"

"Tell them I'll be there. I may not like going to council meetings, but this one seems important. I'm gonna tell them the truth about Shengi and Sasuke; you can patch me up enough to move around, eh?" Naruto said as he tried to raise his arm to scratch his head, which didn't work out since he could barely move his fingers in the first place on his right hand.

"You really are a pain, you know that?" Tsunade said as she walked around to examine his bandaged arm. "Maybe, just maybe. And even if you're fit to go, you'll be in a wheelchair." Naruto whined. "No chance, Naruto, you're going in a wheelchair or not at all. I'm not about to spend more time healing you just cause you fell down and couldn't catch yourself, now hold still."

"Father, you can't be serious," Shikamaru said, surprised that his father would vote against postponing Shengi and Sasuke's trial.

"I can't vote to delay the trial just because of a slim chance that this Shengi character was under the influence of a seal and Sasuke is repentant. For all I know, the seal was just a precaution and Shengi wanted to do this, and furthermore, why would Sasuke want to come back at all? He's killed leaf ninjas; what are we supposed to do, just let him back in the village like he hasn't been its enemy for the last five years?"

Shikamaru frowned. He and his father would frequently have these bouts of reasoning with each other; his father seemed to always have the right answer though. Seldom had he been able to convince him. "I know Naruto isn't the most intelligent of people, but I trust him; and if he tells me that Shengi had no choice in the matter, I'm inclined to believe him. I don't know about the other clan heads though, that's a different matter entirely."

Shikamaru sighed. _Man, it' so hard just to convince my dad. At least I don't have to worry about any of the others; at least a couple will vote the way he does anyway. _"Yeah, I'm gonna head out, I might be late." _I need to hurry if I'm gonna meet Ino._

"Hey, son, here," Shikaku said as he tossed his son a small plastic package. It was a condom. He returned to his book. "Not in this house and not unsafely, y'hear?" Shikaku's voice raised as Shikamaru left, kinda pissed.

_Damn, we weren't even going to do it tonight anyway,_ Shikamaru thought, frustrated. As he left though, he looked up at the clouds and his spirits lifted a little. _I'll keep it though; never know what could happen with her. _

"Dammit! Two votes short!" Naruto exclaimed as he hit the armrest of his wheelchair, his wrist exploding into piercing agony. It'd be gone in a few days, but till then, Naruto wouldn't be doing anything strenuous. "Is there anything else we can do, Granny Tsunade?"

"I wish there were, but I don't know what else you can do." She began to walk away from them, in the direction of the Hokage tower. "I'll see if I can't dig anything up while doing paperwork."

As soon as Tsunade was out of sight, Naruto looked up at Temari. "Hey, stop for a sec, I wanna get up," he said as he began to put weight on his feet.

"Are you crazy?" Temari asked, _well, ask a stupid question…_ "Tsunade said that-"

"Said shmaid, I need to get my feet under me and walk!" Naruto said as he began to stand. Everything felt sore, but it was good to be able to walk again. He took a shaky step forward and began to lose his balance, that is, until Temari appeared beside him, helping him stand.

"Dumbass, you could hurt yourself," she admonished.

"I'm hurt enough already, what could a fall do. Come on, Temari, let me walk just a bit, please?" He pleaded.

Temari caved far too soon for her own liking. "Alright. Alright, but if you fall, it's on you to get your ass back in the wheelchair." Temari said, trying her best to sound pissed.

"Hey, Temari. You know where they're keeping Sasuke, right? I really need to see him."

"Absolutely not. He could kill you! Especially in your weakened state." She said, stepping back to look at all of him.

"If he wanted to, he could have killed me while we were sleeping, you know that." Naruto said plainly. "I need to see him, rather, he needs to see me. I told him I'd get him back in the village, and I meant peacefully, now where is he? Even if you don't tell me, I'll find somebody who will."

Temari grew frustrated at Naruto because he wouldn't accept her advice; _doesn't he trust me? Fine, if he wants to kill himself, let him. _"Fine, not like I care. He's being held in a bunker at the base of the Hokage Mountain. There's a door in the base of the cliff that leads down some stairs to it. If you don't die, you can tell me all about it." She said as the wind picked up, kicking up the sand from the road and obscuring her from him for the slightest of moments; when it cleared, she was gone.

_Man, the walk just got a lot longer,_ Naruto thought, upset that she had left without saying so much as a thing about what was bothering her.

"**If I may make an observation, she doesn't think you value her opinion, she thinks you don't care what she says, kid" **the fox said.

"_What would you know of women, fox?" _Naruto said, trying to be a bit more derisive than usual.

"**Ahh, there was this cat demon once, but that's another story. I think this is the right decision, but she can't see that. She sees that you could have died back there fighting Shengi. That's all she sees. She doesn't want that to happen to you again, and whereas you may be ready to go through pain again, she's not ready for you to go through it."**

"_Cat demon?"_

"**Dammit, kid! Don't you listen? Don't answer that. She really cares about you and doesn't want you to get hurt! Just keep that in mind next time you almost die, idiot." **The fox receded, the conversation over.

_Jeez, everybody's angry today. _

Naruto arrived at the bunker, having met Shikamaru along the way.

"You're really heavy you know that?" Shikamaru said, giving support with his shoulder to Naruto.

"Yeah, sorry, maybe I shouldn't have tried to walk so far." Naruto said, grinning.

"Why are you here anyways?" Shikamaru said, _this is the bunker where dangerous war criminals are kept; he's probably here to see Sasuke. The idiot._ Naruto was about to answer when Shikamaru cut him off. "Never mind, I already know. This is a bad idea, Naruto. I wouldn't advise it." _of course, when has he EVER taken my advice in the first place. _

"Shikamaru, I need to do this for Sasuke. He needs to see that I still care." Naruto said, opening the door. "Don't worry, I got it from here," he said, as he began to descend the stairs.

As he got to the bottom of the stairs, which descended at least twenty meters, he saw a large open auditorium, with ten large cubes in the center. They were each about ten meters square, and were each covered with intricate seals. At a desk centered facing toward him, Naruto saw Ibiki, head of torture and interrogation of Konoha.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Or Namikaze, depending on how important you feel like being, eh?" He said, deep voice resonating a bit in the large room. Naruto could see why he was the torture master of Konoha. He had a way of acting that made you afraid of him, no matter who you were.

"I need to see a prisoner. Sasuke Uchiha."

Ibiki didn't seem surprised in the slightest. "Hmm, Naruto, this is a difficult thing, you don't intend on yelling at him through the concrete, I assume? And I'm not about to let the kid out of that cell at all under any circumstances. So that leaves one option, I'm sure a smart kid like you can figure it out, eh?"

Naruto knew something like this would happen. "Yeah, I know, I'll have to get in the cell with him."

"Good, now if you've got the balls, I'll give you a seal that lets you pass through the seals and concrete. Don't worry about him getting it; I'll put it where he won't find it. You ready?" He said, his palm starting to glow slightly.

"Yeah, get it over with." Ibiki lifted Naruto's shirt, and on his left side, imprinted a strange seal on him. He felt slight pressure, then a minor burning sensation as the seal wrote itself on his skin.

"All done, you can now go speak to our little war criminal." Ibiki said, sitting back down. "By the way, the seal only lasts fifteen minutes, so make it quick. I sure as hell won't be coming back to save you if you go over the time limit."

Naruto was already moving. There were little signs on each of the cubes; most had names he didn't recognize. He came to Sasuke's cube and stepped forward. A strange sensation came over him, as if he was walking through water, then suddenly he was in the small room with Sasuke. He looked up, surprised.

"Naruto?" he said, bewildered that he would be coming here.

"Here, help me sit down, I've walked a long way, especially with these injuries," he said, offering a hand to Sasuke as if they were old friends. Sasuke stood and took his hand, letting him down gently on the cool stone floor.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke said, still standing.

"I need to talk to you."

"Obviously, you idiot. Now why ELSE are you here?"

"They're gonna execute you in a week, and I don't know if I can stop them."

Sasuke took a step back. "No shit?"

"Yeah, and unless I can pull this amazing seal design out of my ass by then, I can't help you."

"You're working with seals now, eh?" Sasuke asked, surprised that Naruto had skill for the art.

"Yeah, just the basics now, but if I can't seal your chakra without doing anything else, It's all for nothing. I needed to come by and show you I- err, we still want you back. All of team seven, and we don't care about everybody else.

Sasuke thought for a sec, then it came to him. _Oh, this is NOT gonna be good._ "Well, I think I know of someone who might know the seal design you need. But he's probably not gonna give it to you."

Naruto responded without hesitation. "Then I'll beat it out of him, who is it?"

Sasuke smirked. "I doubt even you could do that. It's Kabuto Yakushi."

Naruto stared blankly. "What?"

Sorry again, for being so late with this chapter, finals are upon me, and I took the weekend break to finish writing this chapter. It felt a lot like filler to me, did it feel like that to anyone else? Either way, the break between semesters is coming up, and I should be able to write a bit more then. Crossed fingers for my finals guys! Thanks for reading, please give me suggestions, comments, concerns, point out plot faults and tell me what the next chapter should be about please.

1. Chidori claws is a close ranged jutsu created by Sasuke as a product of his extensive training in mastering the chidori. Requiring perfect chakra control, the user forms ten tiny chidori-like blades at the ends of his fingers. This, coupled with a minor form of nintaijutsu that Sasuke is working on, is deadly in close combat.


	14. Chapter 13

Alright guys, new chapter, I am glad you have taken the time to read this, I re-read it for myself not long ago and I feel like my writing style has improved visibly throughout the story, it was nice to see that I'm improving. ON TO THE CHAPTER! I hope you enjoy.

**Where we left off.**

"You're working with seals now, eh?" Sasuke asked, surprised that Naruto had skill for the art.

"Yeah, just the basics now, but if I can't seal your chakra without doing anything else, It's all for nothing. I needed to come by and show you I- err, we still want you back. All of team seven, and we don't care about everybody else.

Sasuke thought for a sec, then it came to him. _Oh, this is NOT gonna be good._ "Well, I think I know of someone who might know the seal design you need. But he's probably not gonna give it to you."

Naruto responded without hesitation. "Then I'll beat it out of him, who is it?"

Sasuke smirked. "I doubt even you could do that. It's Kabuto Yakushi."

Naruto stared blankly. "What?"

0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 00000000

_**Where we begin**_

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit!" Naruto said, and tried to punch the wall, but forgot the seal and his fist went right through it, much to his initial surprise.

"Kabuto was working hard on a specific seal when I left. I think it was the one he used on the asshole that knocked me out, I had better not see him again." Sasuke said, clenching his fist.

"Ahh," Naruto chuckled, "He's closer than you think, they've got him in the next cell over; and while you're thinking about beating the piss out of him, you should know that he's not under the seal's influence any more."

Sasuke grunted. "How's that? Kabuto was designing the seal to not come off under any circumstances."

"Call it a perk of being a demon, I guess." Naruto said, deliberately being cryptic.

"Fine, keep your secrets, but if he comes near me again, I'll kill him, chakra or not." Sasuke said, and Naruto knew he meant it, at least for now. He looked across the small cell at his injured former teammate. "But what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be working on getting me out of here?"

"I needed to make sure you knew I hadn't given up on you," Naruto said, trying to get up, but saw Sasuke's hand stretched toward him. He took it and they stood together, both injured and grunting as they stood.

He winced as he straightened, his ribs still sore and possibly broken. "You're too stubborn to let me die, I know that better than anybody; now go, find me a seal so I can get out of here. It's getting boring."

Naruto grasped his shoulder. "Sure thing, I worked way too hard for you to just up and die on me."

Naruto slipped back into the stone wall, and soon was greeted with Ibiki again.

"Finished your talking?" Ibiki asked.

"Yes, Ibiki, I'll be going now."

"Naruto, I know you want Sasuke to come back; and so do I, but it can't happen. The punishment for traitorous action is death. Point blank period. Even if he has had a change of heart, his crimes still need to be paid for, Naruto." He sighed. "Remember that before the end."

Naruto scarcely gave his statement a passing thought as he walked toward the door, slowly due to his injuries. As he passed it, and out of earshot of Ibiki, an idea came to him as he looked at the long flight of steps he'd need to climb.

"Ah, FUCK!" he said to himself harshly, "I'm an idiot," he said again, forming a familiar symbol. A copy of him appeared, and pulled his arm over his shoulder, giving himself a helping hand. He chuckled lightly to himself at his own foolishness. _I could have done this all along, couldn't I have?_

"**Yeah, you could; I'd have told you, but it was so funny to watch." **

"_Hey! Why didn't you tell me? You're part of me, you know, it's not like we're not in this together," _Naruto thought, admonishing the furry resident.

"**Hey, I need to get my kicks SOME way in here, it's so boring sometimes." **The fox said sarcastically as he finally emerged into the sunlight, although it was beginning to decrease; evening was fast approaching. It was getting a bit cold, too. Winter was coming, so the days were getting shorter as well.

Naruto saw Shikamaru laying down on one of the benches nearby, his eyes on the clouds. Naruto glanced up as well, and saw the streaks of deep pink and orange in bands across the clouds, stretching back away from the sun until they faded to white again. He walked, with the help of his shadow clone and sat down on the bench next to Shikamaru's head.

Shikamaru spoke, "The clouds are most beautiful in the evening, don't you think?"

Naruto thought for a second. "Nah, the morning is best, cause you smile at it and it's a good start to the day."

Shikamaru sat up, and looked at Naruto. "So, what about Sasuke?" he noticed that Naruto's bandages on his chest were staining red. "But first, we're gonna go see Tsunade and you're gonna get those bandages changed."

Naruto hadn't noticed, just that it hurt like hell. He looked down and reluctantly agreed with Shikamaru. "All right, let's go see her, I need to talk to her anyways."

They made their way to Tsunade's office without incident; she took one look at his side and spoke. "Your bandages need to be changed, I suppose Shikamaru almost dragged you here, yes?"

Naruto dispelled his clone. "Well, I needed to talk to you as well; about Sasuke's sealing, I think I found a way to do it, or rather I think I know someone who already knows."

This got Tsunade's full attention. "What? Who is this person? How'd you find him?" she said, standing, somehow retaining the ability to grab some spare bandages from the shelf beside her desk before approaching the jinchuriki.

"You're not gonna like this, OW!" Naruto said as she removed the bandage, which had stuck to his wound, a foot long ragged gash surrounded by deep purple flesh where he was struck. Tsunade's hands glowed as she tended to his wound again, she would probably need to again to ensure that he wasn't injured further. In her diagnosis, however, there was something off. One of his ribs hadn't healed properly, and the bones had joined about a half-inch off of alignment from one another.

"Yeah, and you're not gonna like this either, why did you have to walk on your own, you idiot. You ruined your rib, I'll need to break it again."

Naruto backpedaled and winced in pain. "Y-you're kidding, right?" he said nervously.

"No, Naruto, but since it's not completely healed yet, I can do it without much effort, though it's still gonna hurt."

"Damn," he said under his breath

Shikamaru, can you hold him for me? I need his arms away from his chest so I can hit him effectively."

Naruto's eyes widened. "NO! No WAY am I letting you just up and punch me! You could put your fist through the Hokage monument with that, and I'm just supposed to stand there and take it?"

"Yes, it's your fault for walking on your own before you should. Now raise your arms, or I might miss and hit you in the face instead." Tsunade said, an evil smirk lifting a corner of her mouth.

Naruto raised one arm, and then had Shikamaru hold it there, standing on a table behind him. He had Shikamaru raise his other arm slowly since his shoulder was still injured. Naruto breathed heavily, waiting for it.

Temari made a fist with the second knuckle of her middle finger out, and placed it lightly where the improperly healed rib was.

"Ready?" She said.

"No." Naruto said, protesting.

"I'll hit on three, okay?" She said. _I am really enjoying this too much,_ she thought.

"One, two,"

_crack!_

"SHIT!" Naruto fell to his knees, pain radiating across his torso, his right hand just barely keeping him from falling flat on the ground. He managed to roll onto his uninjured side and gasp for breath, each one being shallow so as not to aggravate his newly broken rib. The pain soon subsided to a pounding sort as the sharpness of it faded. "Ohhhhhhh, Tsunade, dammit." He said to no one in particular, doing his best to roll over and stand up again. He grabbed for Shikamaru's hand and pulled himself up, temporarily holding him to keep himself from falling; almost bear hugging the shadow ninja as he let himself down into the chair.

"Now, don't stand up for a while, at least a few more days, I hope you learned something, ya stubborn brat," she said, applying a glowing palm to his larger injury and set the bone right, as well as trying to reduce his internal injuries as much as possible. His body would take care of the rest, and although she could use a strong jutsu to heal him instantly, she thought the better of it. She only used them in emergencies, like his fight with Shengi, and besides, maybe he'd learn something this time.

"Now," Tsunade said, reapplying a bandage to his injury, though this time, it didn't cover his whole side, just the gash. "What was I not going to like?"

At length, Naruto told him of his visit to Sasuke and his information.

"No. Absolutely not. I will not allow it." Tsunade said flatly.

"Tsunade, this may be my only chance to save Sasuke, I need to get this seal design!" he protested, desperately hoping that she would see his reason.

"No, and that is an official order from you Hokage." Tsunade said sternly. "Now, go home, you need to rest, and then we will continue your studies in Fuinjutsu."

"Granny Tsuna-" 

"NO!" She yelled. "I will not send you or let you go! Think about this logically, Naruto! For all we know, Sasuke's just trying to lure you there, in fact, it supports that argument! End of discussion, now GO HOME."

Naruto looked down, refusing to meet Tsunade's stern gaze. He rose to his feet, slowly because of his pain, and made two clones to help him out of the room.

"Shikamaru, I want you to tell me if he leaves the village." She said, the same harsh look directed at him now.

"Yes, Lady Tsunade."

"Dismissed."

As Shikamaru left the room, Tsunade called for three special ANBU members. They arrived without a sound, each dressed for battle.

"Bear, dog, and mouse; I have a task for you three. You are to watch Naruto Uzumaki as he heals and you are to inform me the moment he leaves the village, because he will, I am sure of it. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Lady Hokage!" they replied in unison.

"Dismissed," She said, and they vanished without a sound, as silently as they had come.

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Naruto arrived at his house just as the sun was disappearing below the trees, though he could see the sunlight was still touching the tallest floor of his home. As he walked in the door, he saw the wheelchair that he had been riding in for most of the day. Next, he saw Temari passing from the kitchen into the large living room that Naruto was still not used to. She saw him, made a double take and rushed toward him, helping him into the wheelchair with his clones.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was just a bit of a long walk, is all. I don't think I'll be getting out of this wheelchair anytime soon though." He smiled. "Sorry for worrying you, I know I could have gotten hurt seeing Sasuke, but he needed to see me."

Temari lifted his shirt to look at his injury again, now getting a better look at it since Tsunade had changed his bandages. She was still disturbed that Shengi had done this to Naruto. Everybody knew that Naruto could take the hardest hits out of pretty much all of them, and still come back with more, she couldn't imagine what it would have done to her. "You could have died," she said quietly, placing her palm lightly over his heart, which was at the beginning of the large swath of discolored flesh that crossed his side. "You shouldn't leap into things like that, I don't want you to get hurt," she said, looking up at him with sad eyes.

Naruto cupped her cheek with his right hand. "To protect my friends, I need to."

"But why? Why protect these people?"

Naruto sighed. "Temari, would you risk your life for me? Could you put yourself in danger for me?"

Temari hesitated. She would, undoubtedly, she knew that, but did Naruto doubt her? "Yes, you know that, Naruto." She said, looking down at his injury again.

"And I would do the same for you, Temari. And just like that, I know that any one of my friends would risk themselves for me. Neji, even though he's cold sometimes, he came to my rescue one mission, you know? And even Sasuke saved my ass more than once. And it's not like I owe them, you know? But these people I care about, I'm not gonna let them get hurt, and that's my nindo."

Temari felt like she understood, but it still bothered her, seeing Naruto helpless and coughing up blood, calling her, _what was it she called me? Oh yeah, desert blossom. _She smiled a bit remembering the name. Her train of thought was lost though as she heard what sounded like a fart come from Naruto.

"Naruto!" she said, stepping back from him.

"What, it was just my stomach!" it rumbled again, "There! See?"

Temari decided to not be convinced, just for fun.

"No way did THAT sound come from your stomach!" she cried and ran away, laughing just enough to cue Naruto in. he summoned three shadow clones.

"AFTER HER!" he yelled as one took his wheelchair and pushed, and the other two gave chase.

After a few minutes of chasing around the house, with Naruto not being able to keep up at all, even with two of his clones pushing, Temari sprinted up the stairs, taunting him from above. "HA! The great Naruto Uzumaki! Defeated by a flight of stairs!" she stuck her tongue out.

"Damn you Temari!" Naruto yelled from one floor down, shaking his fist much like an evil mastermind would. "I vow my revenge!"

Temari laughed and walked back down the stairs, sitting gently in Naruto's lap, careful to avoid any sensitive spots, and kissed him. His playfulness was contagious, causing her to smile more than she thought she would.

Naruto spoke as she got up and stood behind him. "Though in all seriousness I'm starving, I feel like I haven't had some decent ramen in forever."

"You kidding? I bet you had ramen for breakfast," she said, beginning to wheel him over to the kitchen.

"Yeah, like I said," Naruto said, grabbing one of the pouches, standing tentatively as he did, though Temari soon pushed him back into his chair.

"No getting out of this chair." She said, commandingly, and Naruto complied, scared a bit of Tsunade maybe needing to break one of his ribs again.

As they waited for his ramen, Naruto spoke. "Sasuke gave me the name of a person who probably has the seal design I need."

"Really? That's great news," she said excitedly. Her connection to Sasuke wasn't profound, but Naruto's was. "Who is it?"

"Kabuto," Naruto said, absentmindedly. "And I'm gonna need to get it from him."

"What? You're kidding, right? You can barely walk, let alone go on an extended journey to another freaking country to beat up Kabuto Yakushi of all people." Temari said.

"Afraid not, Temari, but I won't be going until I'm healed, which by Tsunade's estimates should be four to five days. That leaves me about three weeks to get the seal and get back. And I'm gonna go, Hokage permission or not."

Temari made up her mind right then. If he wanted to put his life on the line, then she would too. "Then I'm going with you."

"Not a good idea, Temari; you could get killed, and –"

"Naruto, I'm not helpless, and I don't want to see you hurt any more than you want to see me hurt," she said. "Or have you not been listening to yourself? You are gonna risk your life to save Sasuke, and I am gonna risk mine for you; I want to protect the people close to me, just as much as you do" She finished softly.

"**Let her go, kid, she's a good kunoichi," **

Naruto gave a sigh; he probably couldn't have stopped her from going with him in the first place. "Okay, but you need a good excuse for why you'll be gone, I will be in direct disobedience of Hokage orders, and she'll probably beat my ass good when I get back, but I will get back. We also need to find him. I'll probably go visit Sasuke and Shengi again."

"You'll probably need me too." Came a voice from outside the room.

Both their heads snapped up to where the voice had come from just in time to see Kakashi turn the corner and come into the room, a single eye on his orange book. Both Naruto and Temari were agape as he sat down in one of the chairs around the table and looked up at them. "You'll probably also not want Tsunade to know about this little adventure prematurely, will you?"

Naruto sighed again. "Why?"

"I have just as much reason to want Sasuke back as you do, and if I can help him by helping another friend of mine, then I will," he said, putting his book away. "And plus," he said, taking a piece of paper from the pocket that contained his book, "I have the most recent information on where Kabuto is."

"**This is good, Kakashi is powerful, no doubt he'll benefit this."**

"_Do you think that we'll be able to get the design?" _Naruto thought, more to himself than Kyuubi.

"**I think the only way to know for sure is to try." **The fox said, cryptic as always, and retreated.

"Okay, okay." Naruto said, feeling tired, it had been a long day. "Let's talk about this tomorrow, I'm tired."

"Tomorrow then," Kakashi said, and left quietly.

After Naruto had gotten up the stairs with some help from Temari, and was soon walking more under his own power towards their bed.

"Sleep on this side," she said, pointing to the left side of the bed. "That way, your ribs and shoulder won't be facing me."

She got in after her, and soon they both found a semi-comfortable position where Naruto wasn't quite in so much pain. Temari mused.

"You remember what you called me after Shengi hit you?" she asked.

Naruto thought. "It's all kinda hazy, I remember looking at you, saying that it'd be alright, that it wasn't Shengi's fault, Ahh! Desert blossom, that's what it was."

"Yeah, I liked it." Temari said, snuggling closer to him carefully as she drifted off to sleep.

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Okay guys, hope you liked that chapter, and please please review.

And I hate to say it, hope I can get some input, but I MIGHT end up killing Sasuke. Again, review and I'll see y'all next time!


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